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MEXICO 


LY a G 
AZTEC, SPANISH AND'R LT - iN en bio 


A HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND SOCIAL 
ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY FROM THE PERIOD OF THE INVASION 
BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME; 


WITH A VIEW OF THE \ 


ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE AND CIVILIZATION ; 
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE WAR; 


NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA. 


By J 
BRANTZ MAYER, 


FORMERLY SECRETARY OF LEGATION TO MEXICO. 


IN TWO VOLUMES. 


VOLUME I. 


HARTFORD: 
S. DRAKE AND COMPANY. 


MDCCCLI. red 


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a 2 Exrerep according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 


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In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 


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—_ 


Z6UN) JATON | " , 


TO THE 


HONORABLE HENRY CLAY: 


My Dear Sir: 


I take the liberty to inscribe these volumes to you 
as a testimonial of personal gratitude. In the midst of engrossing 
cares you have often been pleased to turn aside for a while to foster 
those who were following the humbler and quieter walks of litera- 
ture; and it is, naturally, their delight to offer for your acceptance, 
upon every suitable occasion, an acknowledgment of cordial thank- 
fulness. 

Allow me, then, as the only tribute I can tender, to present a 
work designed to illustrate the history and resources of one of those 
American States which were summoned into the brotherhood of 
nations by your sympathy and eloquence. 

I am, with the greatest respect, 
Your friend and servant, 
BRANTZ MAYER. 

BattimoreE, Juty, 1850. | 


PREFACE. 


wo 


— 


THE people of the United States have always felt a deep interest in 
the history and destiny of Mexico. It was not only the commercial Y 
spirit of our citizens that awakened this sentiment. In former times, 
when the exclusive policy of Spain closed the door of intercourse 
with her American colonies, the ancient history of Peru and Mexico 
attracted the curiosity of our students. They were eager to solve the 
enigma of a strange civilization which had originated in the central 
portions of our continent in isolated independence of all the world. 
They desired, moreover, to know something of those enchanted re- 
gions, which, like the fabled garden of the Hesperides, were watched 
and warded with such jealous vigilance; and they craved to behold 
those marvelous mines whose boundless wealth was poured into the 
lap of Spain. The valuable work of Baron Humboldt, published in 
the early part of this century, stimulated this natural curiosity ; and, 
when the revolutionary spirit of Europe penetrated our continent, and 
the masses rose to cast off colonial bondage, we hailed with joy every 
effort of the patriots who fought so bravely in the war of liberation. 
Bound to Mexicc by geographical ties, though without a common lan- 
guage or lineage, we were the first to welcome her and the new Ameri- 
can Sovereignties into the brotherhood of nations, and to fortify our 
continental alliance by embassies and treaties. 

After more than twenty years of peaceful intercourse, the war of 
1846 broke out between Mexico and our Union. Thousands, of all 
classes, professions and occupations,—educated and uneducated—ob- 
servers and idlers,—poured into the territory of the invaded republic. 
In the course of the conflict these sturdy adventurers traversed the 
central and northern regions of Mexico, scoured her coasts, possessed 
themselves for many months of her beautiful Capital, and although they 
returned to their homes worn with the toils of war, none have ceased 
to remember the delicious land, amid whose sunny valleys and majes- 
tic mountains they had learned, at least, to admire the sublimity of 
nature. The returned warriors did not fail to report around their fire- 
sides the marvels they witnessed during their campaigns, and nu- 


9 PREFACE. 


merous works have been written to sketch the story of individual ad- 
venture, or to portray the most interesting physical features of various 
sections of the republic. Thus by war and literature, by ancient cu- 
riosity and political sympathy, by geographical position and commer- 
cial interest, Mexico has become perhaps the most interesting portion 
of the world to our countrymen at the present moment. And I have 
been led to believe that the American people would not receive unfa- 
vorably a work designed to describe the entire country, to develop its 
resources and condition, and to sketch impartially its history from the 
conquest to the present day. 

It has been no ordinary task to chronicle the career of a nation for 
more than three centuries, to unveil the colonial government of sixty- 
two Viceroys, to follow the thread of war and politics through the 
mazes of revolution, and to track the rebellious spirit of intrigue amid 
the numerous civil outbreaks which have occurred since the downfall 
of Iturbide. The complete Viceroyal history of Mexico is now for 
the first time presented to the world in the English language, while, 
in Spanish, no single author has ever attempted it continuously. Free 
from the bias of Mexican partizanship, I have endeavored to narrate 
events fairly, and to paint character without regard to individual 
men. In describing the country, its resources, geography, finances, 
church, agriculture, army, industrial condition, and social as well as 
political prospects, I have taken care to provide myself with the most 
recent and respectable authorities. My residence in the country, and 
intimacy with many of its educated and intelligent patriots, enabled 
me to gather information in which I confided, and I have endeavored 
to fuse the whole mass of knowledge thus laboriously procured, with 
my personal, and, I hope, unprejudiced, observation. 

I have not deemed it proper to encumber the margin of my pages 
with continual references to authorities that are rarely consulted by 
general readers, and could only be desired by critics who would often 
be tantalized by the citation of works, which, in all likelihood, are not 
to be found except in private collections in the United States, and some 
of which, I am quite sure, exist only in my- own library or in the 
Mexican Legation, at Washington. Such references, whilst they oc- 
cupied an undue portion of the book, would be ostentatiously and te- 
diously pedantic in a work of so little pretension as mine. I may 
state, however, that no important fact has been asserted without au- 
thority, and, in order to indicate the greater portion of my published 
sources of reliance, I have subjoined a list of the principal materials 
consulted and carefully verified in the composition of these volumes. 
Nevertheless, I have perhaps failed sometimes to procure the standard 
works that are accessible to native or permanent residents of the 
country, and thus, may have fallen accidently into error, whilst hon- 
estly seeking to shun misstatement. If those whose information 


PREFACE. 3 


enables them.to detect important mistakes will be kind enough to 
point them out candidly and clearly, I will gladly correct such serious 
faults if another edition should ever be required by an indulgent 


public. 


Battimore, Aucust, 1850. 


BRANTZ MAYER. 


AUTHORITIES USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS WORK. 


I. HISTORICAL. 


Cartas de Cortez ed. Lorenzana. 

Historia Verdadera de la Conquis- 
ta de la Nueva Espana—Bernal 
Diaz. 

Peter Martyr. 

Conquista de Mejico, by De Solis. 

Veytia. Herrera. 

Robertson’s History of America. 

Clavigero—Historia Antigua de 
Mejico. 

Prescott’s History of the Conquest 
of Mexico. : 

Cavo y Bustamante—Tres Siglos 
de Mejico. 

Alaman— Disertaciones sobre la 
Historia de Mejico. 

Father Gage’s America. 

Ternaux-Compans’s History of the 
Conquest. 

Recopilacion de las leyes de las 
Indias. 

Mendez—Observaciones sobre las 
leyes, &c., &c. 

N. American Review, vol. XIX. 

Transactions of the American 
Ethnological Society, in the Ar- 
ticles on Mexico, by Mr. Gal- 
latin. 

Researches, Philosophical and An- 
tiquarian, concerning the Abo- 
riginal History of America, by 
J. H. McCulloh. 

Pesquisia contra Pedro de Alva- 
rado y Nuno de Guzman. 

Lives of the Viceroys in the Liceo 
Mejicano. 

Notas y esclarecimientos 4 la his- 
toria de la Conquista de Mejico, 
por José F. Ramirez.—2d vol. of 
Mexican translation of Prescott. 


Zavala—Revoluciones de Mejico 
desde 1808, hasta 1830. 

Don Vicente Pazo’s Letters on 
the United Provinces of South 
America. 

Robinson’s Memoirs of the Mexi- 
can Revolution. 

Ward’s Mexico in 1827, &c. 

Foote’s History of Texas. 

Tejas in 1836. 

Memorias para la Historia de la 
Guerra de Tejas, por General 
Vicente Filisola. 

Forbes’s California. 

Greenhow’s Oregon and California. 

American State Papers. 

Ranke—Fursten und Volker. 

Dr. Dunham’s History of Spain 
and Portugal. 

General Waddy Thompson’s Re- 
collections of Mexico. 

Apuntes para la historia de la 
guerra entre Mejico y los Esta- 
dos Unidos. 

Lectures on Mexican history, by 
Jose Maria Lacunza, Professor 
in the College of San Juan de 
Letran. 

Constituciones de Mejico y de los 
Estados Mejicanos. 

Thirteen octavo volumes of docu- 
ments published by the Con- 
egress of the United States, rela- 
tive to our intercourse and war 
with Mexico, collected by my- 
self. 

Tributo a la Verdad,—Vera Cruz 
1847. 


4 PREFACE. 


II. DESCRIPTIVE. 


Humboldt, Essai Politique sur la 
Nouvelle Espagne. 

Poinsett’s Notes on Mexico. 

Bullock’s Mexico. 

Lieut. Hardy’s Journey in Mexico. 

Ward’s Mexico in 1827. 

Folsom’s Mexico in 1842. 

Miuhlenpfordt—Die Republik Me- 


iCO. 

Mejico en 1842, por Luis Manuel 
de Rivero. 

Mexico as it Was and asit Is, 1844. 

Ensayo sobre el verdadero estado 
de la cuestion social y politica 
que se agita en la Republica 
Mejicana, por Otero, 1842. 

Madame Calderon de la Barca’s 
Life in Mexico. 

Kennedy’s Texas. 

Emory, Abert, Cooke and John- 
ston—Journals in New Mexico 
and California—1848. 

Frémont’s Expeditions, 1842-’3-’4. 

Frémont’s California, 1848. 

T. Butler King’s Report on Cali- 
fornia, 1850. 

W. Carey Jones’s do. do. 1850. 

Executive documents in relation 
to California, 1850. 

Forbes’s California. 

Bryant’s do. 

Kendall’s Santa Fé Expedition. 

Wilkes’s Exploring Expedition. 

Wise—Los Gringos. 

Ruxton’s Travels in Mexico, &c. 

Norman’s Rambles in Yucatan. 

kf in Mexico. 

Grego’s Commerce of the Prairies. 

Dr. Wislizenius’s Memoir on New 
Mexico. 

Stephens’s Central America. 

i Yucatan. 

Gama—Piedras Antiguas de Me- 
jico. 


El Museo Mejicano. 


Isidro R. Gondra’s Notes on Mexi- 
can Antiquities, in the 38rd vol. 
(with plates) of the Mexican 
translation of Prescott. 

Nebel—Voyage Arquéologique et 
Pittoresque en Mexique. 

Memoir of the Mexican Minister 
of Foreign and Domestic Af- 
fairs on the condition of the 
country in 1846. 

Idem in 1849. 

Memoir of the Mexican Minister 


of War, 1844. 
Idem in 1846. 
Idem in 1849. 


Memoir of the Mexican Minister 
of Finance on the condition of 


the ‘Treasury, 1841. 
Idem in 1846. 
Idem in 1848. 
Idem in 1849. 


Memoir on the Agriculture and 
Manufactures of Mexico, by Don 
Lucas Alaman, 1843. 

Memoir on the Liquidation of the 
National Debt, by Alaman, 1845. 

Noticias Estadisticas del Estado 
de Chihuahua, 1834. 

Noticias Estadisticas sobre el De- 
partamento de Queretaro, 1845. 

Nos. 1, 2, 3, Boletin del Instituto 
Nacional de Geografia y Esta- 
distica, 1839-1849. 

Collecion de documentos relativos 
al departamento de Californias, 
1846. 

El Observador Judicial de Mejico. 

Semanario de la Industria Meji- 
cana. 

El Mosaico Mejicano. 

Journal des Economistes. 

Lyell’s Geology. 

Lerdo—Consideraciones sobre la 
condicion social y politica de la 


Republica Mejicana en 1847. 


CONTENTS. 


Book (f-. 


CHAPTER I.—Discovenes of Cordova and Grijalva—Cortéz appointed by Velas- 
quez—Biographical notice of Cortéz—Cortéz Captain General of the Armada— 
Equipment of the Expedition—Quarrel of Velasquez—Firmness of Cortéz—Ex- 
MecuMon departs under:Cortezss tere eet) ils). s, Wel hiss: gle, Oat fa Us! fo ommend 


CHAPTER 11.—Olmeda preaches to the Indians—Aguilar and Mariana—interpre- 
ters—Cortéz lands—interview with the Aztecs—Diplomacy—Montezuma’s pres- 
ents—Montezuma refuses to receive Cortéz, ..-. . . «++ » 5 « » 8 OW 


CHAPTER III.—Cortéz founds La Villa Rica de Ja Vera Cruz—Fleet destroyed— 
March to Mexico—Conquest of Tlascala—Cholula—Slaughter in Cholula—Valley 
of Mexico—Cortéz enters the Valley—Gigantic Causeway—Lake of Tezcoco— 
Reception by Montezuma—Spaniards enter the capital,. . . . . . - . 28 


CHAPTER IV.—Description of the City of Tenochtitlan—Montezuma’s way of 
life—Market-place—Cortéz at the Great ''emple—Description of it—Place of Sa- 
crifice—Sanctuaries—H uitzilopotchtli—Tezcatlipoca—Danger of Cortéz—Monte- 
zuma seized—Montezuma a prisoner—his submissiveness—Arrival of Narvaez— 
Cortéz’s diplomacy—Cortéz overcomes Narvaez, and recruits his forces, . . 35 


CHAPTER V.—Cortéz returns to the Capital—Causes of the revolt against the 
Spaniards—Cortéz condemns Alvarado—his conduct to Montezuma—Battle in the 
- city—Montezuma mediates—Fight on the Great Temple or Teocalli—Retreat of 
the Spaniards—Noche Triste—Flight of the Spaniards to Tacuba, . . . . 44 


CHAPTER VI.—Retreat to Otumba—Cortéz is encountered by a new army of Az- 
tecs and auxiliaries—Victory of the Spaniards at Otumba—Proposed re-alliance of 
Aztecs and Tlascalans—Forays of Cortéz—reduction of the eastern regions—Cor- 
téz proposes the re-conquest—sends off the disaffected—Cortéz settles the Tlascalan 
Sees 5) Moura sear a ne yr alc hie. eet ieh, Chey 80h 4. gel Mieke tee sate ROU 


CHAPTER VII.—Death of Cuitlahua—he is succeeded by Guatemozin—Aztecs 
learn the proposed re-conquest—Cortéz’s forces for this enterprise—Cortéz at Tez- 
coco—his plans and acts—Muilitary expeditions of Cortéz in the Valley—Operations 
at Chaleo and Cuernavaca—Xochimilco—return to Tacuba—Cortéz returns to 
BRCZEOCO ANG ist WeMNTORCEM, 0. 5. wae eee ee Hh ewe care. tem 6 Tye er ROGT 


CHAPTER VIII.—Cortéz returns—conspiracy among his men detected—Execution 
of Villafanta—Brigantines launched—Xicotencatl’s treason and execution—Dispo- 
sition of forces to attack the city—Siege and assaults on the city—Fight and re- 
verses of the Spaniards—Sacrifice of captives—Flight of allies—Contest renewed— 
SUMRUE ICL oY SSE IG: shee ak pyle re Wo aise ere ies OSA Mey Sk a or MOM TE Sf | 359) 


CHAPTER I[X.—Aztec prediction—it is not verified—Cortéz reinforced by fresh 
arrivals—Famine in the city—Cortéz levels the city to its foundation—Condition 
of the capital—Attack renewed—Capture of Guatemozin—Surrender of the city— 
Bruchitfulyconditioncot thercity,) coward «ese ) we! cicero? A ETP ta) 


CHAPTER X.—Duty of a historian—Motives of the Conquest—Character and 
deeds of Cortéz—Materials of the Conquest—Adventurers—Priests—Indian allies 
= EMStorical Aspects iontie ONGUESL,) 69.8 - ve. oh cel) sh eg | ov ee) one lw 


6 ' CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XI.—Discontent at not finding gold—Torture of Guatemozin—Results 
of the fall of the capital—Mission from Michoacan—Rebuilding of the capital— 
Letters to the King—lIntrigues against Cortéz— Fonseca— Narvaez —Tapia— 
Charles V. protects Cortéz and confirms his acts, . 5°. 45>... <0 .ye2 eu 


CHAPTER XIJ.—Cortéz commissioned by the Emperor—Velasquez—his death— 
Mexico rebuiJt—Immigration—Repartimientos of Indians—Honduras—Guatemo- 
zin—Mariana—Cortéz accused—ordered to Spain for trial—his reception, honors 
and titles—he marries—his return to Mexico—resides at 'Tezcoco—Expeditions of 
Cortéz—California—Quivara—returns to Spain—death—W here are his bones? 84 


CHAPTER XIII.—Archbishop Zumarraga’s destruction of Mexican monuments, 
writings, documents—Mr. Gallatin’s opinion of them—Traditions—two sources of 
accurate knowledge—Speculations on antiquity—Aztecs—Toltecs—Nahuatlacs— 
Acolhuans, &c.—Aztecs emigrate from Aztlan—settle in Anahuac—Tables of emi- 
gration of the original tribes—Other tribes in the empire, . . . . . . . 92 


CHAPTER XIV.—Difficulty of estimating the civilization of the Aztees—Nations 
in Yucatan—Value of contemporary history—The Aztec monarchy—elective— 
Royal style in Tenochtitlan—Montezuma’s way of life—Despotic power of the 
Emperor over life and law—Theft—intemperance—marriage—slavery—war—Mili- 
tary system and hospitals—Coin—Revenues—Aztec mythology—Image of Teo- 
yaomiqui—Teocalli—T wo _ kinds of sacrifice—Why the Aztecs sacrificed their 
prisoners—Common Sacrifice—Gladitorial Sacrifice—Sacrificial Stone—Aztec Ca- 
lendar—week, month, year, cycle—Procession of the New Fire—Astronomical 
Science—Aztec Calendar—Tables, “0°. 5 ws og a or) oe tds me Ree 


B.OVO Keir. 


CHAPTER I.—Colonial system—Early grants of power to rulers in Mexico by the 
Emperor Charles V.—Abuse of it—Council of the Indies—Laws—Royal audiences 
—Cabildos—Fueros—Relative positions of Spaniards and Creoles—Scheme of 
Spanish colonial trade—Restrictions on trade—Alcabala—Taxes—Papal Bulls— 
Bulls de Cruzada—de Defuntos—of Composition—Power of the Church—its pro- 
perty—Inquisition—The acts of the Inquisition—Repartimientos—Indians—Agri- 
culturists—Miners—Mita—Excuses for maladministration, . . . . . . 197 


CHAPTER II.—Founding of the Viceroyalty of New Spain—New Audiencia— 
Fuenleal—Mendoza—Early acts of the first Viceroy—Coinage—Rebellion in Ja- 
lisco—Viceroy suppresses it—Council of the Indies on Repartimientos—Indian 
Servitude—Quivara—Expeditions of Coronado and Alarcon—Pest in 1546—Revo- 
lution—Council of Bishops—Mines—Zapotecs revolt—Mendoza removed to Peru, 

Page 139. 

CHAPTER II.—Velasco endeavors to ameliorate the condition of the Indians— 
University of Mexico established—Inundation—Military colonization—Philip II— 
Florida—Intrigues against Velasco—Philipine Isles—Death of Velasco—Marques 
de Falces—Baptism of the grand-children of Cortéz—Conspiracy against the Mar- 
ques del Valle—his arrest—execution of his friends—Marques de Falces—charges 
against him—his fall—Errors of Philip If.—Fall of Mufioz and his return—Vm- 
dication of the Viceroy, . 5 Sah anlar Ate italy Sao Sa. | agi ON, 2 ot ae 


CHAPTER IV.—Almanza Viceroy—Chichimecas revolt—Jesuits—Inquisition— 
Pestilence—No Indian tribute exacted—Almanza departs—Xuares Viceroy—W eak 
Administration—Increase of commerce—Pedro Moya de Contreras Viceroy—Re- 
forms under a new Viceroy—His power as Viceroy and Inquisitor—Zuniga Vice- 
roy—Treasure—Piracy—Cavendish—Drake captures a galeon—Zufiiga and the 
Audiencia of Guadalajara—His deposition from power, . . . . + + ~ 160 


CONTENTS. a 


CHAPTER V.—Luis de Velasco II. becomes Viceroy—Delight of the Mexicans— 
Factories reopened—Chichimecas—Colonization—Alameda—Indians taxed for 
European wars—Composition—Fowls—Acebedo Viceroy—Expedition to New 
Mexico—Indian ameliorations—Death of Philip IIl.—New scheme of hiring In- 
dians—California—Montesclaros Viceroy—Inundation—Albarrada, . . . 170 


CHAPTER V1.—Second administration of Don Luis Velasco—His great work for 
the Drainage of the Valley—Lakes in the Valley—Danger of Inundation—History 
of the Desague of Huehuetoca—QOperations of the engineers Martinez and Boot— 

_ The Franciscans—Completion of the Desague—La Obra del Consulado—Negro 
revolt—Extension of Oriental trade—Guerra ST as Cordova Viceroy— 
Indian revolt—Cordova founded, . . .. . oh gah’ vega Venue rN LAS 


CHAPTER VII.—Marques de Gelves icaog eis reforms—Narrative of Father 
Gage—Gelves forestalls the market—The Archbishop excommunicates Mexia, his 
agent—Quarrel between Gelves and the Archbishop—Viceroy excommunicated— 
Archbishop at Guadalupe—he is arrested at the altar—sent to Spain—Mexia threa- 
tened—Mob attacks the Palace—it is sacked—Viceroy escapes—Retribution, 187 


CHAPTER VIII.—The Audiencia rules in the interregnum—Carillo Visitador—In- 
quisitorial examination—Acapulco taken—Attacks by the Dutch—Removal of the 
Capital proposed—Armendariz Viceroy—Escalona Mane ec conduct to 
the Viceroy—Palafox Viceroy—His goodandevil, .. . Gee vont tar WOO 


CHAPTER IX.—Sotomayor Viceroy—Escalona vindicated—Monastic property— 
Bigotry of Palafox—Guzman Viceroy—Indian insurrection—Revolt of the Tara- 
humares—Success of the Indians—Indian wars—Duke de Alburquerque Viceroy— 
Attempt to assassinate him—Count de Bafios Viceroy—Attempt to colonize—Es- 
cobar y Llamas and De Toledo fee oe of British cruisers—Nuio 
de Portugal Viceroy, . . . *. oman (UN 


CHAPTER X.—Rivera Vieeroy—La Cerda viscop nasal in New Mexico— 
Success of the Indians—Colony destroyed—Efforts of the Spaniards to re-conquer 
—Vera Cruz sacked—Count Monclova Viceroy—Count Galve Viceroy—TYarrahu- 
maric revolt—Indians pacified—Texas—Hispaniola attacked—Insurrection—Burn- 
ing of the Palace—Famine—Earthquake, . . . = Seca 


CHAPTER XI.—Montafiez Viceroy—Spiritual is of California—Valladares 
Viceroy—Fair at Acapulco—Spanish monarchy—Austria—Bourbon—Montanez 
Viceroy—Jesuits in California—La Cueva Viceroy—Duke de Linares Viceroy— 
British slavery treaty—Colonization—Nuevo Leon—Texas—Opevations in Texas 
—Alarcon—Aguayo—Casa-Fuerte’s virtuous administration—Louis I[.—Oriental 
trade—Spanish jealousy—The King’s opinion of Casa-Fuerte—his acts, . . 221 


CHAPTER XII.—Vizarron and Eeuiarreta Viceroy—Eventless government—Sala- 
zar Viceroy—Colonial fears—Fuen-Clara Viceroy—Galeon lost—Mexico under 
Revilla-Gigedo I.—Ferdinand VI.—Indians—Taxes—Colonies in the north— 
Famine—Muines at Bolafios—Horcasitas—Character of Fe eS rae 
Viceroy—Charles III.—Cagigal Viceroy, . . . . vow Se Soe 


CHAPTER XIIT.—Marques de Cruillas Vise oe = Ohiates Ill. coolaitgeall HEE 
taken by the British—Military preparations—Peace—Pestilence—Galvez Visitador 
—Reforms—Tobacco monopoly—De Croix Viceroy—The Jesuits—their expulsion 
from Spanish dominions—their arrival in a ae ee of this con- 
duct to the order—Origin of the military character of Mexico, . . - 240 


CHAPTER XIV.—Bucareli y Ursua Viceroy—Progress of New Spain—Gold 
placers in Sonora—Mineral wealth at that period—Intellectual condition of the 
country—Line of Presidios—Mayorga Viceroy—Policy of Spain to England and 
her colonies—Operations on the Spanish Main, &c.—Matias Galvez Viceroy —his 
acts, . ‘ a : : : X . ; ‘ : 4 : : 248 


8 CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XV.—Bernardo de Galvez Viceroy—Chapultepec—Galvez dies—his 
daughter—Haro Viceroy—Corruption of Alcaldes—Flores Viceroy—his system of 
ruling the northern frontier—Mining interests—II. Revilla-Gigedo Viceroy— 
Charles [V.—Revilla-Gigedo’s colonial improvements—his advice as to California 
Anecdotes of his police regulations—The street of Revilla-Gigedo—Arrest of fugi- 
tive lovers—Punishes the culprits, . . : : d : ; : 255 


CHAPTER XVI.—Branciforte Viceroy—his grasping and avaricious character— 
Corruption tolerated—Persecution of Frenchmen—Encampments—Branciforte’s 
character—Azanza Viceroy—Effect of European wars on colonial trade and manu- 
factures—Threatened revolt—Marquina Viceroy—Revolt in Jalisco—Iturrigaray 
Viceroy—Godoy’s corruption—War—Defences against the United States—Miran- 
da—Humboldt—Mexico taxed for European wars—Ferdinand VII.—Napoleon in 
Spain—King Joseph Bonaparte—Iturrigaray arrested—Garibay Viceroy, 267 


BOLO de hh: 


CHAPTER I.—Lianza Viceroy—Audiencia—Venegas Viceroy—True sources of 
the Revolution—Creoles loyal to Ferdinand—Spaniards in favor of King Joseph— 
Mexican subscriptions for Spain—Secret union in Mexico against Spaniards—Hi- 
dalgo—Allende—First outbreak—Guanajuato sacked—Las Cruces—Mexico men- 
aced—Indian bravery at Aculco—Marfil—Massacre at Guanajuato—Calleja—tIn- 
surgents defeated—Execution of Hidalgo, : : : : . : 279 


CHAPTER Il.—Venegas Viceroy—Rayon—Junta in 1811—its willingness to re- 
ceive Ferdinand VII.—Proclamation by the Junta—Morelos—Acapulco taken— 
Successes of the insurgents—Siege of Cuautla—Izucar—Orizaba—Oaxaca—Chil- 
panzingo—Calleja Viceroy—Iturbide—Reverses of insurgents—Morelos shot, 287 


CHAPTER III.—Apodaca Viceroy—Spanish constitution of 1812 proclaimed in 
Mexico—Condition of the revolutionary party—Victoria—Mina lands at Soto la 
Marina—his efforts—Los Remedios—Guerrillas—he is shot—Padre 'Torres— 
Iturbide—Apodaca selects him to establish absolutism—lIturbide promulgates the 
Plan of Iguala—Army of the Three Guaranties, : d ; 5 : 293 


CHAPTER IV.—O’Donoju Viceroy—Conduct of Iturbide—Novella—Revolt— 
Treaty of Cordova—-First Mexican Cortes—Iturbide Emperor—his career—exiled 
to Italy—Iturbide returns—arrest—execution—his character and services, 301 


CHAPTER V.—Review of the condition of Mexico and the formation of parties— 
Viceroyal government—The people—The army—The church—Constitution of 
1824—Echavari revolts—Victoria President—Escocesses—Y orkinos—Revolts con- 
tinued—Montayno—Guerrero—Gomez Pedraza President—is overthrown—Fed- 
eralists—Centralists—Guerrero President—Abolition of Slavery in Mexico, 307 


CHAPTER VI.—Conspiracy against Guerrero by Bustamante—Guerrero betrayed 
and shot—Anecdote—Revolt under Santa Anna—he restores Pedraza and becomes 
President—Gomez Farias deposed—Church—Central Constitution of 1836—Santa 
Anna—his Texan disgrace—Mexia—Bustamante President—French at Vera Cruz 
Revolts in the north and in the capital—Bustamante deposed—Santa Anna Presi- 
dent, é i : 4 % : ‘ ; , ; Z ‘ s 316 


CHAPTER VII.—Reconquest of Texas proposed—Canalizo President ad interim— 
Revolution under Paredes in 1844—Santa Anna falls—Herrera President—Texan 
revolt—Origin of war with the United States—Texan war for the Constitution 
of 1824—Nationality recognized—Annexation to the United States—Proposition 
to Mexico—Herrera overthrown—Paredes President—Our minister rejected— 
Character of General Paredes, . ; : : ; ; - me : 326 


CONTENTS. 9 


CHAPTER VIII.—General Taylor ordered to the Rio Grande—History of Texan 
boundaries—Origin of the war—Military preparations—Commencement of hostili- 
ties—Battles of Palo Alto and a a ha ag advance—F'all of 
Monterey, . eee 

CHAPTER IX. Ganga Wool Bisbee’ sil nce he: trestern troops—Army 
of the Centre—New Mexico—K earney—Macnamara—California—F rémont—So- 
noma—Californian independence—Possession taken—Sloat—Stockton—A revolt— 
Pico-—-Treaty of Couenga—Kearney at San Pascual—is relieved—Disputes—San 
Gabrielle—Mesa—Los Angeles—Frémont’s character, services, trial, F 342 

CHAPTER X.—Valley of the Rio Grande—Santa Anna at San Luis—Scott com- 
mander-in-chief—Plan of attack on the east coast—General Scott’s plan—Doni- 
phan’s expedition—Bracito—Sacramento—Revolt in New Mexico—Murder of 
Richie—Selection of battle ground—Description of it—Battle of Angostura or 
Buena Vista—Mexican retreat—Tabasco—Tampico, 4 , : : 350 


CHAPTER XI.—Santa Anna’s return—changes his principles—Salas executive— 
Constitution of 1824 restored—Paredes—Plans of Salas and Santa Anna—his letter 
to Almonte—his views of the war—refuses the Dictatorship—commands the army 
—State of parties in Mexico—Puros—Moderados—Santa Anna at San Luis— 
Peace propositions—Internal troubles—Farias’s controversy with the church—Pol- 
ko revolution in the capital—Vice Presidency suppressed—Important decree, 358 

CHAPTER XII.—General Scott at Lobos—Landing at and siege of Vera Cruz— 
Capitulation and condition of Vera Cruz—Condition of Mexico—Alvarado, etc., 
captured—Scott’s advance—Description of Cerra Gordo—Mexican defences and 
military disposal there—Battle of Cerro Gordo—Peroté and Puebla yield—Santa 
Anna returns—Constitution of 1824 readopted—Mexican politics of the day— 
War spirit—Guerillas—Peace negotiations—Santa Anna’s secret negotiations, 370 

CHAPTER XIII.—Scott at Puebla—Tampico and Orizaba taken—Scott’s advance 
—Topography of the Valley of Mexico—Routes to the capital—E] Pefion—Mex- 
icalzingo—T ezcoco—Chalco—Outer and inner lines around the city—Scott’s ad- 
vance by Chalco—The American army at San Augustin, . : . Atoll | 


CHAPTER XIV.—Difficulties of the advance—The Pedregal—San Antonio—Ha- 
cienda—Relative position of American and Mexican armies—Path over the Ped- 
regal to Contreras—Valencia disconcerts Santa Anna’s plan of battl—American 
advance and victory at Contreras—San Antonio turned by Worth—Battle of Chu- 
rubusco—Battle at the Convent and Tete de Pont—Their capture, . . 391 


CHAPTER XV.—Why the city was not entered on the 20th—Condition of the 
_ city—Deliberation of the Mexican cabinet and proposals—Reasons why General 
Scott proposed and granted the armistice—Deliberations of commissioners—Par- 
ties against Santa Anna—Failure of the negotiation—Mexican desire to destroy 
Santa Anna, : : - 400 
CHAPTER XVI.—Military mosiden a the nercana at he end of the armis- 


tice—Mexican defences—Plan of attack—Reconnoissances of Scott and Mason— 
Importance of Mexican position at Molino del Rey—Scott’s scheme of capturing 


the city—Battle of Molino del Rey—Reflections and criticism on this battle—Pre- 
parations to attack Chapultepec—Storming of Chapultepec and of the city Gates 
of San Cosmé and Belen—Retreat of the Mexican army and government—Ame- 
rican occupation of the city of Mexico, : : . 408 
CHAPTER .XVII.—Attack of the city mob on he am eC Wns: Governor— 
Pena President—Congress ordered—Siege of Puebla—Lane’s, Lally’s, and 
Childs’s Tiguoes Vem eee broken up—Mexican politics—Anaya President— 
Peace negotiations—Scott’s decree—Pena President—Santa Anna and Lane— 
Santa Anna leaves Mexico for Jamaica—Treaty entered into—Its character—Santa 
Cruz de Rosales—Court of Inquiry—Internal troubles—Ambassadors at Queré- 
taro—Treaty ratified—Evacuation—Revolutionary attempts—Condition of Mexico 
since the war—Character of Santa Anna—Note on the military critics, . 420 


oe HISTORY OF THE 
| CONQUEST OF MEXICO BY CORTEZ, | 
WITH A SKETCH OF AZTEC CIVILIZATION. 


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1511 — 1530. 


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CHAPTER. f. 


1511 ro 1519. 


DISCOVERIES OF CORDOVA AND GRIJALVA.— CORTEZ APPOINTED 


BY VELASQUEZ. — BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF CORTEZ. — COR- 
TEZ CAPTAIN GENERAL OF THE ARMADA.— EQUIPMENT OF 
THE EXPEDITION. — QUARREL OF VELASQUEZ —FIRMNESS OF 


CORTEZ. — EXPEDITION DEPARTS UNDER CORTEZ. 


THERE is perhaps no page in modern history so full of dramatic 
incidents and useful consequences, as that which records the dis- 
covery, conquest and development of America by the Spanish and 
Anglo Saxon races. The extraordinary achievements of Columbus, 
Cortéz, Pizarro, and Washington, have resulted in the acquisition 
of broad lands, immense wealth, and rational liberty; and the 
names of these heroes are thus indissolubly connected with the 
physical and intellectual progress of mankind. 

In the following pages we propose to write the history, and 
depict the manners, customs and condition of Mexico. Our 
narrative begins with the first movements that were made for 
the conquest of the country; yet, we shall recount, fully and 
accurately, the story of those Indian princes,—the splendor of 
whose courts, and the misery of whose tragic doom, enhance the 
picturesque grandeur and solemn lessons that are exhibited in 
the career of Hernando Cortéz. 


14 DISCOVERIES OF CORDOVA AND GRIJALVA. 


Cuba was the second island discovered, in the West Indies ; 
but it was not until 1511, that Diego, son of the gallant admiral, 
who had hitherto maintained the seat of government in Hispaniola, 


resolved to occupy the adjacent isle of Fernandina, — as it was - 
then called, — amid whose virgin mountains and forests he hoped . 


to find new mines to repair the loss of those which were rapidly 
failing in Hispaniola. ! 

For the conquest of this imagined El Dorado, he prepared a 
‘small armament, under the command of Diego Velasquez, an 
ambitious and covetous leader, who, together with his leutenant, 
Narvaez, soon established the Spanish authority in the island, of 
which he was appointed Governor. 


Columbus, after coasting the shores of Cuba for a great distance, 


had always believed that it constituted a portion of the continent, — 


but it was soon discovered that the illustrious admiral had been in 
error, and that Cuba, extensive as it appeared to be, was, in fact, 
only an island. . 

In February, 1517, a Spanish hidalgo, Hernandez de Cordova, 
set sail, with three vessels, towards the adjacent Bahamas in search 
of slaves. ° He was driven by a succession of severe storms on 
coasts which had hitherto been unknown to the Spanish adventurers, 
and finally landed on that part of the continent which forms the 
north-eastern end of the peninsula of Yucatan, and is known as 
Cape Catoché. Here he first discovered the evidence of a more 
liberal civilization than had been hitherto known among his 
adventurous countrymen in the New World. Large and solid 
buildings, formed of stone ;— cultivated fields ; — delicate fabrics 
of cotton and precious metals, — indicated the presence of a race 
that had long emerged from the semi-barbarism of the Indian Isles. 
The bold but accidental explorer continued his voyage along the 
coast of the peninsula until he reached the site of Campeché; and 
then, after an absence of seven months and severe losses among 
his men, returned to Cuba, with but half the number of his reckless 


companions. He brought back with him, however, numerous — 


evidences of the wealth and progress of the people he had 
fortuitously discovered on the American main; but he soon died, 
and left to others the task of completing the enterprise he had so 
auspiciously begun. The fruits of his discoveries remained to be 
gathered by Velasquez, who at once equipped four vessels and 


'In 1525, the gold washings of Hispaniola were already exhausted ; and sugar and 
hides are alone mentioned as exports. Petri Mart: Ep. 806, Kal. Mart. 1525. 


my, gig, 


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CORTEZ APPOINTED BY VELASQUEZ. 15 


entrusted them to the command of his nephew, Juan de Grijalva, 
and on the Ist of May, 1518, this new commander left the port 
of St. Jago de Cuba. The first land he touched on his voyage 
of discovery, was the Island of Cozumel, whence he passed to the 
continent, glancing at the spots that had been previously visited by 
Cordova. So struck was he by the architecture, the improved 
agriculture, the civilized tastes, the friendly character and demeanor 
of the inhabitants, and, especially, by the sight of ‘‘large stone 
crosses, evidently objects of worship,’ that, in the enthusiasm 
of the mcment, he gave to the land the name of Nueva Espanta — 
or New Spain, —a title which has since been extended from the 
peninsula of Yucatan to even more than the entire empire of 
Montezuma and the Aztecs. | 

Grijalva did not content himself with a mere casual visit to the 
continent, but pursued his course along the coast, stopping at 
the Rio de Tabasco. Whilst at Rio de Vanderas, he enjoyed 
the first intercourse that ever took place between the Spaniards 
and Mexicans. The Cacique of the Province sought from the 
strangers a full account of their distant country and the motives 
of their visit, in order that he might convey the intelligence to 
his Aztec master. Presents were interchanged, and Gruyalva 
received, in return for his toys and tinsel, a mass of jewels, 
together with ornaments and vessels of gold, which satisfied the 
adventurers that they had reached a country whose resources would 
repay them for the toil of further exploration. Accordingly, he 
despatched to Cuba with the joyous news, Pedro de Alvarado, one 
of his captains,— a man who was destined to play a conspicuous 
part in the future conquest, — whilst he, with the remainder of his 
companies, continued his coasting voyage to San Juan de Ulua, 
the Island of Sacrificios, and the northern shores, until he reached 
the Province of Panuco; whence, after an absence of six months, 
he set sail for Cuba, having been the first Spanish adventurer who 
trod the soil of Mexico. / 

But his return was not hailed even with gratitude. The florid 
reports of Pedro de Alvarado had already inflamed the ambition 
and avarice of Velasquez, who, impatient of the prolonged absence 
of Grijalva, had despatched a vessel under the command of Olid 
in search of his tardy officer. Nor was he content with this 
jealous exhibition of his temper; for, anxious to secure to himself 
all the glory and treasure to be derived from the boundless resources 
of a continent, he solicited authority from the Spanish crown to 
prosecute the adventures that had been so auspiciously begun ; 


16 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF CORTEZ. 


and, in the meanwhile, after considerable deliberation, resolved to 
fit out another armament on a scale, in some degree, commensurate 
with the military subjugation of the country, should he find 
himself opposed by its sovereign and people. After considerable 
doubt, difficulty and delay, he resolved to entrust this expedition 
to the command of Hrernanpo Corriéz; “the last man,’ says 
Prescott, ‘‘to whom Velasquez,—could he have foreseen the 
results, — would have confided the enterprise.’’ 


It will not be foreign to our purpose to sketch, briefly, the 
previous life of a man who subsequently became so eminent in the 
history of both worlds. Seven years before Columbus planted the 
standard of Castile and Arragon in the West Indies, Hernanpo 
Cortéz, was born, of a noble lineage, in the town of Medellin, 
in the Province of Estremadura, in Spain. His infancy was. frail 
and delicate, but his constitution strengthened as he grew, until, 
at the age of fourteen, he was placed in the venerable university 
of Salamanca, where his parents, who rejoiced ,in the extreme 
vivacity of his talents, designed to prepare him for the profession 
of law, the emoluments of which were, at that period, most 
tempting in Spain. But the restless spirit of the future conqueror 
was not to be manacled by the musty ritual of a tedious science 
whose pursuit would confine him to a quiet life. He wasted two 
years at the college, and, like many men who subsequently became 
renowned either for thought or action, was finally sent home in 
disgrace. Nevertheless, in the midst of his recklessness, and by the 
quickness of his genius, he had learned “ alittle store of Latin,” 
and acquired the habit of writing good prose, or of versifying 
agreeably. His father,.— Don Martin Cortéz de Monroy, and 
his mother, Donia Catalina Pizarro Altamirano,—seem to have 
been accomplished people, nor is it improbable, that the greater 
part of their son’s information was obtained under the influence of 
the domestic circle. At college he was free from all restraint, — 
giving himself up to the spirit of adventure, the pursuit of pleasure, 
and convivial intercourse,— so that no hope was entertained of his 
further improvement from scholastic studies. His worthy parents 
were, moreover, people of limited fortune, and unable to prolong 
these agreeable but profitless pursuits. Accordingly, when Cortéz 
attained the age of seventeen, they yielded to his proposal to 
enlist under the banner of GonsaLtvo or Corpova, and to devote 
himself, heart and soul, to the military life which seemed most 
suitable for one of his wild, adventurous and resolute disposition. 


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CORTEZ. 17 


It was well for Spain and for himself, that the chivalric wish ot 
Cortéz was not thwarted,—and that one of the ablest soldiers 
produced by Castile at that period, was not dwarfed by parental 
control into a bad lawyer or pestilent pettifogger. 

The attention of our hero was soon directed towards the New 
World, —the stories of whose wealth had now for upwards of 
twenty years been pouring into the greedy ear of Spain,— and he 
speedily determined to embark in the armament which Nicotas 
DE Ovanpo, the successor of Columbus, was fitting out for the 
West Indies. This design was frustrated, however, for two years 
longer, by an accident which occurred in one of his amours; nor 
did another opportunity present itself, until, at the age of nineteen, 
in 1504, he bade adieu to Spain in a small squadron bound to the 
Islands. 

As soon as Cortéz reached Hispaniola, he visited the Governor, 
whom he had formerly known at home. Ovanpo was absent, but 
his secretary received the emigrant kindly, and assured him “a 
liberal grant of land.” ‘I come for gold,’ replied Cortéz, 
sneeringly, ‘‘and not to toil like a peasant!’’ Ovando, however, 
was more fortunate than the secretary, in prevailing upon the 
future conqueror to forego the lottery of adventure, for no sooner 
had he returned to his post, than Cortéz was persuaded to accept a 
erant of land, a repartimiento of Indians, and the office of notary 
in the village of Acua. Here he seems to have dwelt until 1511, 
varying the routine of notarial and agricultural pursuits by an 
occasional adventure, of an amorous character, which involved him 
in duels. Sometimes he took part in the military expeditions 
under Diego Velasquez for the suppression of Indian insurrections 
in the interior. This was the school in which he learned his 
tactics, and here did he study the native character until he joined 
Velasquez for the conquest of Cuba. 

As soon as this famous Island was reduced to Spanish authority, 
Cortéz became high in favor with Velasquez, who had received 
the commission of Governor. But love, intrigues, jealousy and 
ambition, quickly began to chequer the wayward life of our hero, 
and estranged him from Velasquez, for the new Governor found it 
difficult to satisfy the cravings of those rapacious adventurers who 
flocked in crowds to the New World, and, in all probability, 
clustered around Cortéz as the nucleus of discontent. It was 
soon resolved by these men to submit their complaints against 
Velasquez to the higher authorities in Hispaniola, and the daring 
Cortéz was fixed on as the bearer of the message in an open boat, 


3 


* OEE Sh AO er Re 


18 CORTEZ CAPTAIN GENERAL OF THE ARMADA. 


across the eighteen intervening leagues. But the conspiracy was 
detected, —the rash ambassador confined in chains, —and only 
saved from hanging by the interposition of powerful friends. 

Cortéz speedily contrived to relieve himself of the fetters with 
which he was bound, and, forcing a window, escaped from his 
prison to the sanctuary of a neighboring church. A few days 
after, however, he was seized whilst standing carelessly in front 
of the sacred edifice, and conveyed on board a vessel bound for 
Hispaniola, where he was to be tried. But his intrepidity and 
skill did not forsake him even in this strait. Ascending cautiously 
from the vessel’s hold to the deck, he dropped into a boat and 
pulled near ashore, when dreading to risk the frail bark in the 
breakers, he abandoned his skiff, — plunged boldly into the surf, — 
and landing on the sands, sought again the sanctuary, whence he 
had been rudely snatched by the myrmidons of the Governor. 

One of the causes of his quarrel with Velasquez had been an 
intrigue with a beautiful woman, in whose family the Governor 
was, perhaps, personally interested. The fickle Cortéz cruelly 
abandoned the fair Catalina Xuares at a most inauspicious moment 
of her fate, and was condemned for his conduct by all the best 
people in the Island; but now, under the influence of penitence 
or policy, his feelings suddenly experienced a strange revulsion. 
He expressed a contrite desire to do justice to the injured woman . 
by marriage, and thus, at once obtained the favor of her family and 
the pardon of the Governor, who becoming permanently reconciled: 
to Cortéz, presented him a liberal repartimiento of Indians together 
with broad lands in the neighborhood of St. Jago, of which he 
was soon made alcalde. 

The future conqueror devoted himself henceforth to his duties 
with remarkable assiduity. Agriculture,—the introduction of 
cattle of the best breeds, — and the revenues of a share of the mines 
which he wrought,— soon began to enrich the restless adventurer 
who had settled down for a while into the quiet life of a married 
man. His beautiful wife fulfilled her share of the cares of life 
with remarkable fidelity, and seems to have contented the heart 
even of her liege lord, who declared himself as happy with his 
bride as if she had been the daughter of a duchess. 


At this juncture ALvarapo returned with the account of the 
discoveries, the wealth, and the golden prospects of continental 
adventure which we have already narrated. Cortéz and Velasquez 
were alike fired by the alluring story. The old flame of enterprise 


EQUIPMENT OF THE EXPEDITION. 19 


was rekindled in the breast of the wild boy of Medellin, and when 
the Governor looked around for. one who could command the 
projected expedition, he found none, among the hosts who pressed 
for service, better fitted for the enterprise by personal qualities 
and fortune, than, Hernando Cortéz, whom he named Captain 
GuNERAL oF His’ AnMapa. 

The high office and the important task imposed on him seem 
to have’ sobered the excitable, and heretofore fickle, mind of our 
hero: ‘His ardent animal spirits, under the influence of a bold 
and lofty purpose, became the servants rather than the masters 
of his indomitable will, and he at once proceeded to arrange all 
the details of the expedition which he was to lead to Mexico. 
The means that he did not already possess in his own coffers, he 
raised by mortgage, and he applied the funds, thus obtained, to 
the purchase of vessels, rations, and military stores, or to the 
furnishing of adequate equipments for adventurers who were too 
poor to provide their own outfit.” It is somewhat questionable 
whether Velasquez, the Governor, was very liberal in his personal 
and pecuniary contributions to this expedition, the cost of which 
amounted to about twenty thousand gold ducats. It has been 
alleged that Cortéz was the chief support of the adventure, and 
it is certain, that in later years, this question resulted in bitter 
litigation between the parties. te 

Six ships and three hundred followers were soon prepared for 
the enterprise under Cortéz, and the Governor proceeded to give 
instructions to the leader, all of which are couched in language of 
unquestionable liberality. 

The captain of the Armada was first to seek the missing Grijalva, 
after which the two commanders were to unite in their quest of 
gold and adventure. Six Christians, supposed to be lingering in 
captivity in Yucatan, were to be sought and released. Barter and 
trafhe, generally, with the natives were to be encouraged and 
carried on, so as to avoid all offence against humanity or kindness 
The Indians were to be christianized;—for the conversion of 
heathens was one of the dearest BProtts of the Spanish king. 
The aborigines, in turn, were to manifest their good will by ample 
gifts of jewels and treasure. The coasts aa adjacent streams 
were to be surveyed,—and the productions of the country, its 
races, civilization, and institutions, were to be noted with minute 
accuracy, so that a faithful report might be returned to the crown, 


20 QUARREL OF VELASQUEZ— FIRMNESS OF CORTEZ. 


to whose honor and the service of God, it was hoped the enterprise 
would certainly redound. 

Such was the state of things in the port of St. Jago, when 
jealous fears began to interrupt the confidence between Velasquez 
and Cortéz. ‘The counsel of friends who were companions of the 
Governor, and his own notice of that personage’s altered conduct, 
soon put the new Captain General of the Armada on his guard. 
Neither his equipment nor his crew was yet complete; nevertheless, 
he supplied his fleet with all the provisions he could hastily obtain 
at midnight; and, paying the provider with a massive chain which 
he had worn about his neck,—the last available remnant, 
perhaps, of his fortune,—he hastened with his officers on board 
the vessels. 

On the 18th of November, 1518, he made sail for the port of 
Macaca, about fifteen leagues distant, and thence he proceeded to 
Trinidad, on the southern coast of Cuba. - Here he obtained stores 
from the royal farms, whilst he recruited his forces from all classes, 
but especially from the returned troops and sailors of Grijalva’s 
expedition. Pedro de Alvarado and his brothers; Cristéval de Olid, 
Alonzo de Avila, Juan Velasquez de Leon, Hernandez de Puerto 
Carrero, and Gonzalo de Sandoval, united their fortunes to his, 
and thus identified themselves forever with the conquest of Mexico. 
He added considerably to his stock by the seizure of several 
vessels and cargoes; and prudently got rid of Diego de Ordaz, 
whom he regarded as a spy of the estranged Velasquez. 

At Trinidad, Cortéz was overtaken by orders for detention from 
his former friend and patron. These commands, however, were 
not enforced by the cautious official who received them; and 
Cortéz, forthwith, despatched Alvarado, by land, to Havana, 
whilst he prepared to follow with his fleet around the coast 
and western part of the island. At Havana he again added 
to his forces,— prepared arms and quilted armor as a defence 
against the Indian arrows,— and distributed his men into eleven 
companies under the command of experienced officers. But, 
before all his arrangements were completed, the commander of the 
place, Don Pedro Barba, was ordered, by express from Velasquez, 
to arrest Cortéz, whilst the Captain General of the Armada himself 
received a hypocritical letter from the same personage, ‘‘ requesting 
him to delay his voyage till the governor could communicate with 
him in person!”’ Barba, however, knew that the attempt to seize 
the leader of such an enterprise and of such a band, would he 


EXPEDITION DEPARTS UNDER CORTEZ. 21 


vain;—whilst Cortéz, in reply to Velasquez, ‘‘implored his 
Excellency to rely on his boundless devotion to the interests of his 
Governor, but assured him, nevertheless, that he and his fleet, by 
divine permission, would sail on the following day!” 

Accordingly, on the 18th of February, 1519, the little squadron 
weighed anchor, with one hundred and ten mariners, sixteen horses, 
five hundred and fifty-three soldiers, including thirty-two crossbow- 
men and thirteen arquebusiers, besides two hundred Indians of the 
island and a few native women, for menial offices. The ordnance 
consisted of ten heavy guns, four lighter pieces or falconets, 
together with a good supply of ammunition. 

With this insignificant command and paltry equipment, HeEr- 
NaNDO Corréz, at the age of thirty-three, set sail for the conquest 
of Mexico. He invoked on his enterprise the blessing of his 
patron, Saint Peter ;—— he addressed his followers in the language 
of encouragement and resolution;—he unfurled a velvet banner 
on which was emblazoned the figure of a crimson cross amid 
flames of blue and white, and he poited to the motto which was 
to be the presage of victory: ‘‘ Friends, let us follow the Cross; 
and under this sign, if we have faith, we shall conquer!” 


CHAPTER ITI. 
1519. 


OLMEDO PREACHES TO THE INDIANS.—AGUILAR AND MARIANA—~ 
INTERPRETERS. —— CORTEZ LANDS —INTERVIEW WITH THE AZ- 
TECS. — DIPLOMACY——MONTEZUMA’S PRESENTS. — MONTEZUMA 
REFUSES TO RECEIVE CORTEZ. 


Soon after the adventurers departed from the coast of Cuba, the 
weather, which had been hitherto fine, suddenly changed, and one 
of those violent hurricanes which ravage the Indian Isles during 
the warm season, scattered and dismantled the small squadron, 
sweeping it far to the south of its original destination. Cortéz 
was the last to reach the Island of Cozumel, having been forced 
to linger in order to watch for the safety of one of his battered 
craft. But, immediately on landing, he was pained to learn that 
the impetuous Prepro pr Axnvarapo had _ rashly entered the 
temples, despoiled them of their ornaments, and terrified the 
natives into promiscuous flight. He immediately devoted himself 
to the task of obliterating this stain on Spanish humanity, by 
kindly releasing two of the captives taken by Alvarado. Through 
an interpreter he satisfied them of the pacific purpose of his voyage, 
and despatched them to their homes with valuable gifts. This 
humane policy appears to have succeeded with the natives, who 
speedily returned from the interior, and commenced a brisk traffic 
of gold for trinkets. 

The chief objection of Cortéz to the headlong destruction which 
Alvarado had committed in the temples, seems rather to have been 
against the robbery than the religious motive, if such existed in the 
breast of his impetuous companion. We have already said that 
the conversion of the heathen was one of the alleged primary 
objects of this expedition, for the instructions of the Governor 
of Cuba were full of zeal for the spread of christianity; yet, in 
the diffusion of this novel creed among the aborigines, it sometimes 
happened that its military propagandists regarded the sword as 


OLMEDO PREACHES TO THE INDIANS. 23 


more powerful than the sermon. The idolatrous practices of the 
inhabitants of Cozumel shocked the sensibility of the commander, 
and he set about the work of christianization through the labors 
of the licentiate Juan Diaz and Bartolomé de Olmedo, the latter 
of whom,— who remained with the army during the whole expe- 
dition, — was, indeed, a muror of zeal and charity. The discourses 
of these worthy priests were, however, unavailing ;——the Indians, 
who of course could not comprehend their eloquent exhortations 
or pious logic, refused to abandon their idols; and our hero 
resolved at once to convince them, by palpable arguments, of the 
inefficiency of those hideous emblems, either to save themselves 
from destruction, or to bestow blessings on the blind adorers. An 
order was, therefore, forthwith given for the immediate destruction 
of the Indian images; and, in their place, the Virgin and her Son 
were erected on a hastily constructed altar. Olmedo and his 
companion were thus the first to offer the sacrifice of the mass in 
New Spain, where they, finally, induced numbers of the aborigines 
to renounce idolatry and embrace the Catholic faith. 

In spite of this marauding crusade against their property and 
creed, the Indians kindly furnished the fleet with provisions, which 
enabled the squadron to sail in the ensuing March. But a leak 
in one of the vessels compelled the adventurers to return to port, — 
a circumstance which was regarded by many as providential, — 
inasmuch as it was the means of restoring to his countryman, a 
Spaniard, named Aguilar, who had been wrecked on the coast of 
Yucatan eight years before. The long residence of this person in 
the country made him familiar with the language of the inhabitants 
of that neighborhood, and thus a valuable interpreter, — one of its 
most pressing wants, was added to the expedition. 


After the vessels were refitted, Cortéz coasted the shores of 
Yucatan until he reached the Rio de Tabasco or Grijalva, where 
he encountered the first serious opposition to the Spanish arms. 
He had a severe conflict, in the vicinity of his landing, with a 
large force of the natives; but the valor of his men, the terror 
inspired by fire arms, and the singular spectacle presented to the 
astonished Indians by the extraordinary appearance of cavalry, 
soon turned the tide of victory in his favor. The subdued tribes 
appeased his anger by valuable gifts, and forthwith established 
friendly relations with their dreaded conqueror. Among the 
presents offered upon this occasion by the vanquished, were 
twenty female slaves;— and after one of the holy fathers had 


24 AGUILAR AND MARIANA — INTERPRETERS. 


attempted, as usual, to impress the truths of christianity upon the 
natives, and had closed the ceremonies of the day by a. pompous 
procession, with all the impressive ceremonial of the Roman 
church, the fleet agai sailed towards the empire Cortéz was 
destined to penetrate and subdue. 


In Passion week, of the year 1519, the squadron dropped anchor 
under the lee of the Island or reef of St. Juan de Ulua. The 
natives immediately boarded the vessel of the Captain General ; 
but their language was altogether different from that of the Mayan 
dialects spoken in Yucatan and its immediate dependencies. In 
this emergency Cortéz learned that, among the twenty female 
slaves who had been recently presented him, there was one 
who knew the Mexican language, and, in fact, that she was an 
Aztec by birth. This was the celebrated Marina or Mariana, 
who accompanied the conqueror throughout his subsequent adven- 
tures, and was so useful as a sagacious friend and discreet inter- 
preter. Acquainted with the languages of her native land and of 
the Yucatecos, she found it easy to translate the idiom of the 
Aztecs into the Mayan dialect which Aguilar, the Spaniard, had 
learned during his captivity. Through this medium, Cortéz was 
apprised that these Mexicans or Aztecs were the subjects of a 
powerful sovereign who ruled an empire bounded by two seas, 
and that his name was Montezuma. | 


On the 21st of April the Captain General landed on the sandy 
and desolate beach whereon is now built the modern city of Vera 
Cruz. Within a few days the native Governor of the province 
arrived to greet him, and expressed great anxiety to learn whence 
the ‘‘fair and bearded strangers”? had come? Cortéz told him 
that he was the “subject of a mighty monarch beyond the sea 
who ruled over an immense empire and had kings and princes for 
his vassals ; that, acquainted with the greatness of the Mexican 
emperor, his master desired to enter into communication with so 
great a personage, and had sent him, as an envoy, to wait on 
Montezuma with a present in token of his good will, and a 
friendly message which he must deliver in person.” The Indian 
Governor expressed surprise that there was another king as great 
as his master, yet assured Cortéz that as soon as he learned 
Montezuma’s determination, he would again converse with him on 
the subject. Truutie then presented the Captain General ten 
loads of fine cottons; mantles of curious feather work, beautifully 


CORTEZ LANDS —INTERVIEW WITH THE AZTECS. 25 


dyed; and baskets filled with golden ornaments. Cortéz, in turn, 
produced the gifts for the emperor, which were comparatively 
insignificant ; but, when the Aztec Governor desired to receive 
the glittering helmet of one of the men, it was readily given as an 
offering to the emperor, with the significant request that it might 
be returned filled with gold, which Cortéz told him was ‘a specific 
remedy for a disease of the heart with which his countrymen, the 
Spaniards, were sorely afflicted !”’ 

During this interview between the functionaries it was noticed 
by the adventurers that men were eagerly employed among the 
Indians in sketching every thing they beheld in the ranks of the 
strangers, — for, by this picture-writing, the Mexican monarch was 
to be apprised in accurate detail of the men, horses, ships, armor, 
force, and weapons of this motley band of invaders. 

These pictorial missives were swiftly borne by the Mexican 
couriers to the Aztec capital among the mountains, and, together 
with the oral account of the landing of Cortéz and his demand for 
an interview, were laid before the Imperial Court. It may well be 
imagined that the extraordinary advent of the Captain General and 
his squadron was productive of no small degree of excitement and 
even tremor, among this primitive people; for, not only were they 
unnerved by the dread which all secluded races feel for innovation, 
but an ancient prophecy had foretold the downfall of the empire 
through the instrumentality of beings, who, like these adventurers, 
were to “‘come from the rising sun.”? Montezuma, who was 
then on the throne, had been elected to that dignity in 1502 in 
preference to his brothers, in consequence of his superior quali- 
fications as a soldier and a priest. His reign commenced ener- 
getically ; and whilst he, at first, administered the interior affairs 
of his realm with justice, capacity, and moderation, his hand fell 
heavily on all who dared to raise their arms against his people. 
But, as he waxed older and firmer in power, and as his empire 
extended, he began to exhibit those selfish traits which so often 
characterize men who possess, for a length of time, supreme power 
untrammelled by constitutional restraints. His court was sump- 
tuous, and his people were grievously taxed to support its un- 
bounded extravagance. This, in some degree, alienated the loyalty 
of his subjects, while continued oppression finally led to frequent 
insurrection. In addition to these internal discontents of the Aztec 
empire, Montezuma had met in the nominal republic of Tlascala, — 
lying midway between the valley of Mexico and the sea-coast,— 
a brave and stubborn foe, whose civilization, unimpaired resources, 

4 


26 DIPLOMACY — MONTEZUMA’S PRESENTS. 


-and martial character, enabled it to resist the combined forces of 
the Aztecs for upwards of two hundred years. 

Such was the state of the empire when the news of Cortéz’s 
arrival became the subject of discussion in Mexico. Some were 
for open or wily resistance. Others were oppressed with supersti- 
tious fears. But Montezuma, adopting a medium but fatal course, 
resolved, without delay, to send an embassy with such gifts as he 
imagined would impress the strangers with the idea of his 
magnificence and power, whilst, at the same time, he cour- 
teously commanded the adventurers to refrain from approaching 
his capital. 

Meanwhile the Spaniards restlessly endured the scorching heats 
and manifold annoyances of the coast, and were amusing them- 
selves by a paltry traffic with the Indians, whose offerings were 
generally of but trifling value. After the expiration of a week, 
however, the returned couriers and the embassy approached the 
camp. The time is seemingly short when we consider the 
difficulty of transportation through a mountain country, and recol- 
lect that the Mexicans, who were without horses, had been obliged 
to traverse the distance on foot. But it is related on ample 
authority,— so perfectly were the posts arranged among these 
semi-civilized people, — that tidings were borne in the short period 
of twenty-four hours from the city to the sea, and, consequently, 
that three or four days were ample for the journey of the envoys 
of Montezuma, upon a matter of so much national importance. 

The two Aztec nobles, accompanied by the Governor of the 
province, Teuhtle, did not approach with empty hands the men 
whom they hoped to bribe if they could not intimidate. Gold and 
native fabrics of the most delicate character; shields, helmets, 
cuirasses, collars, bracelets, sandals, fans, pearls, precious stones ; 
loads of cotton cloth, extraordinary manufactures of feathers, 
circular plates of gold and silver as large as carriage wheels, and 
the Spanish helmet filled with golden grains; were all spread out, 
as a free gift from the Emperor to the Spaniards! 

With these magnificent presents, Montezuma replied to the 
request of Cortéz, that it would give him pleasure to com- 
municate with so mighty a monarch as the king of Spain, whom 
he respected highly, but that he could not gratify himself by 
according the foreign envoy a personal interview, inasmuch as the 
distance to his capital was great, and the toilsome journey among 
the mountains was beset with dangers from formidable enemies. 
He could do no more, therefore, than bid the strangers farewell, 


MONTEZUMA REFUSES TO RECEIVE CORTEZ. Q7 


and request them to return to their homes over the sea with these 
proofs of his perfect friendship. 

It may well be supposed that this naive system of diplomacy 
could have but little effect on men who were bent on improving 
their fortunes, and whose rapacity was only stimulated by the 
evidences of unbounded wealth which the simple-minded king 
had so lavishly bestowed on them. Montezuma was the dupe 
of his own credulity, and only inflamed, by the very means he 
imagined would assuage the avarice or ambition of his Spanish 
visiters. Nor was Cortéz less resolved than his companions. 
Accordingly he made another pacific effort, by means of additional 
presents and a gentle message, to change the resolution of the 
Indian emperor. Still the Aztec sovereign was obstinate in his 
refusal of a personal interview, although he sent fresh gifts by the 
persons who bore to the Spaniards his polite but firm and peremp- 
tory denial. 

Cortéz could hardly conceal his disappointment at this second 
rebuff; but, as the vesper bell tolled, whilst the ambassadors were 
in his presence, he threw himself on his knees with his soldiers, 
and, after a prayer, Father Olmedo expounded to the Aztec chiefs, 
by his interpreters, the doctrines of Christianity, and putting into 
their hands an image of the Virgin and Saviour, he exhorted 
them to abandon their hideous idolatry, and to place these milder 
emblems of faith and hope on the altars of their bloody gods. 
That very night the Indians abandoned the Spanish camp and the 
neighborhood, leaving the adventurers without the copious supplies 
of food that hitherto had been bountifully furnished. Cortéz, 
nevertheless, was undismayed by these menacing symptoms, and 
exclaimed to his hardy followers: ‘It shall yet go hard, but we 
will one day pay this powerful prince a visit in his gorgeous 
capital!” 


CHAPTER III. 
lyoshe,? 


CORTEZ FOUNDS LA VILLA RICA DE LA VERA CRUZ.— FLEET 
DESTROYED — MARCH TO MEXICO. — CONQUEST OF TLASCALA— 
CHOLULA. — SLAUGHTER IN CHOLULA — VALLEY OF MEXICO. — 
CORTEZ ENTERS THE VALLEY—GIGANTIC CAUSEWAY. — LAKE 
OF TEZCOCO—RECEPTION BY MONTEZUMA.—SPANIARDS ENTER 
THE CAPITAL. 


Ir is impossible, in a work like the present, which is designed 
to cover the history of a country during three hundred years, to 
present the reader with as complete a narrative of events as 
we would desire. Happily, the task of recording the story of 
the conquest, has fallen into the hands of the classic historians of 
Spain, England and America; and the astonishing particulars of 
that mighty enterprise may be found, minutely recounted, in the 
works of De Solis, Robertson and Prescott. We shall therefore 
content ourselves with as rapid a summary as is consistent with 
the development of the modern Mexican character, and shall refer 
those who are anxious for more explicit and perfect details to the 
writings of the authors we have mentioned. 


Cortéz was not long idle after the withdrawal of the Aztec 
emissaries and the surly departure of the Indians, who, as we 
have related in the last chapter, quitted his camp and neighborhood 
on the same night with the ambassadors of Montezuma. He forth- 
with proceeded to establish a military and civil colony, of which he 
became Captain General and Chief Justice; he founded the Villa 
Rica de la Vera Cruz in order to secure a base on the coast for 
future military operation, by means of which he might be inde- 
pendent of Velasquez; and he formed an alliance with the Toto- 
nacos of Cempoalla, whose loyalty, — though they were subjects of 
Montezuma, — was alienated from him by his merciless exactions. 
We shall not dwell upon the skill with which he fomented a breach 
between the Totonacos and the ambassadors of Montezuma, nor 
upon the valuable gifts, and discreet despatches he forwarded to 


FLEET DESTROYED — MARCH TO MEXICO. 29 


the Emperor Charles V., in order to secure a confirmation of his 
proceedings. The most daring act of this period was the destruc- 
tion of the squadron which had wafted him to Mexico. It was a 
deed of wise policy, which deliberately cut off all hope of retreat, — 
pacified, in some degree, the querulous conspirators who lurked in 
his camp,— and placed before all who were embarked in the enter- 
prise the alternative of conquest or destruction. But one vessel 
remained. Nine out of the ten were dismantled and sunk. When 
his men murmured for a moment, and imagined themselves be- 
trayed, he addressed them in that language of bland diplomacy 
which he was so well skilled to use whenever the occasion required. 
“CAs for me,” said he, ‘“‘I will remain here whilst there is one to 
bear me company! Let the cravens shrink from danger and go 
home in the single vessel that remains. Let them hasten to Cuba, 
and relate how they deserted their commander and comrades; and 
there let them wait in patience till we return laden with the spoils 
of Mexico!”’ 

This was an appeal that rekindled the combined enthusiasm 
and avarice of the despondent murmurers; and the reply was a 
universal shout: ‘To Mexico! to Mexico!”’ 


On the 16th of August, 1519, Cortéz set out with his small army 
of about four hundred men, now swelled by the addition of thirteen 
hundred Indian warriors and a thousand porters, and accompanied 
by forty of the chief Totonacs as hostages and advisers. From the 
burning climate of the coast the army gradually ascended to the 
cooler regions of the tierra templada, and tierra fria, encountering 
all degrees of temperature on the route. After a journey of three 
days, the forces arrived at a town on one of the table lands of the 
interior, whose chief magistrate confirmed the stories of the power 
of Montezuma. Here Cortéz tarried three days for repose, and 
then proceeded towards the Republic of Tlascala, which lay 
directly in his path, and with whose inhabitants he hoped to 
form an alliance founded on the elements of discontent which he 
knew existed among these inveterate foes of the central Aztec 
power. But he was mistaken in his calculations. The Tlascalans 
were not so easily won as his allies, the Totonacs, who, dwelling in 
a warmer climate, had not the hardier virtues of these mountaineers. 
‘The Tlascalans entertained no favorable feeling towards Monte- 
zuma, but they nourished quite as little cordiality for men whose 
characters they did not know, and whose purposes they had cause 
to dread. A deadly hostility to the Spaniards was consequently 


30 CONQUEST OF TLASCALA —CHOLULA. 


soon manifested. Cortéz was attacked by them on the borders of 
their Republic, and fought four sharp battles with fifty thousand 
warriors who maintained, in all the conflicts, their reputation for 
military skill and hardihood. At length the Tlascalans were forced 
to acknowledge the superiority of the invaders, whom they could 
not overcome either by stratagem or battle, and, after the exchange 
of embassies and gifts, they honored our hero with a triumphal 
entry into their capital. 


The news of these victories as well as of the fatal alliance which 
ensued with the Tlascalans, was soon borne to the court of Monte- 
zuma, who began to tremble for the fate of his empire when he saw 
the fall of the indomitable foes who had held him so long at bay. 
Two embassies to Cortéz succeeded each other, in vain. Presents 
were no longer of avail. His offer of tribute to the Spanish king 
was not listened to. All requests that the conqueror should not 
advance towards his capital were unheeded. ‘‘’The command of 
his own emperor,”’ said Cortéz, ‘“‘ was the only reason which could 
induce him to disregard the wishes of an Aztec prince, for whom 
he cherished the profoundest respect!’? Soon after, another em- 
bassy came from Montezuma with magnificent gifts and an invita- 
tion to his capital, yet with a request that he would break with his 
new allies and approach Mexico through the friendly city of Cho- 
lula. The policy of this request on the part of Montezuma, will be 
seen in the sequel. Our hero, accompanied by six thousand volun- 
teers from Tlascala, advanced towards the sacred city,—the site 
of the most splendid temple in the empire, whose foundations yet 
remain in the nineteenth century. The six intervening leagues 
were soon crossed, and he entered Cholula with his Spanish army, 
attended by no other Indians than those who accompanied him from 
Cempoalla. At first, the General and his companions were treated 
hospitably, and the suspicions which had been instilled into his 
mind by the Tlascalans were lulled to sleep. However, he soon 
had cause to become fearful of treachery. Messengers arrived 
from Montezuma, and his entertainers were observed to be less 
gracious in their demeanor. It was noticed that several important 
streets had been barricaded or converted into pitfalls, whilst stones, 
missiles and weapons were heaped on the flat roofs of houses. 
Besides this, Mariana had become intimate with the wife of one 
of the Caciques, and cunningly drew from her gossiping friend the 
whole conspiracy that was brewing against the adventurers. Mon- 
tezuma, she learned, had stationed twenty thousand Mexicans near 


SLAUGHTER IN CHOLULA—VALLEY OF MEXICO. 31 


the city, who, together with the Cholulans, were to assault the 
invaders in the narrow streets and avenues, as they quitted the 
town; and, thus, he hoped, by successful treachery, to rid the land 
of such dangerous visiters either by slaughter in conflict, or to offer 
them, when made captive, upon the altars of the sacred temple in 
Cholula and on the teocallis of Mexico, as proper sacrifices to the 
bloody gods of his country. 

Cortéz, however, was not to be so easily outwitted and entrapped. 
He, in turn, resorted to stratagem. Concentrating all his Spanish 
army, and concerting a signal for co-operation with his Indian allies, 
he suddenly fell upon the Cholulans at an unexpected moment. 
Three thousand of the citizens perished in the frightful massacre 
that ensued; and Cortéz pursued his uninterrupted way towards 
the fated capital of the Aztecs, after this awful chastisement, 
which was perhaps needful to relieve him from the danger of utter 
annihilation in the heart of an enemy’s country with so small a 
band of countrymen in whom he could confide. 


From the plain of Cholula, — which is now known as the fruitful 
vale of Puebla, —the conqueror ascended the last ridge of moun- 
tains that separated him from the city of Mexico; and, as he 
turned the edge of the Cordillera, the beautiful valley was at once 
revealed to him in all its indescribable loveliness.! It lay at his 
feet, surrounded by the placid waters of Tezcoco. The sight that 
burst upon the Spaniards from this lofty eminence, in the language 
of Prescott, was that of the vale of Tenochtitlan, as it was called 
by the natives, ‘“‘which, with its picturesque assemblage of water, 
woodland, and cultivated plains; its shining cities and shadowy 
hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before 
them. In the highly rarefied atmosphere of these upper regions, 
even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring and a distinctness 
of outline which seems to annihilate distance. Stretching far away 
at their feet, were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar; 
and beyond, yellow fields of maize and the towering maguey, inter- 
mingled with orchards and blooming gardens; for flowers, in such 
demand for their religious festivals, were even more abundant in this 
populous valley, than in other parts of Anahuac. In the centre of 
the great basin, were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much 
larger portion of its surface than at present; their borders thickly 


1 Between nine and ten thousund feet above the level of the sea, at this point 
of the road. 


82 CORTEZ ENTERS THE VALLEY—GIGANTIC CAUSEWAY. 


studded with towns and hamlets, and, in the midst,—like some 
Indian empress with her coronal of pearls, — the fair city of Mexico, 
with her white towers and pyramidal temples reposing, as it were, 
on the bosom of the waters — the far-famed ‘Venice of the Aztecs.’ 
High over all rose the royal hill of Chapultepec, the residence of the 
Mexican monarchs, belted with the same grove of gigantic cypresses, 
which at this day fling their broad shadows over the land. In the 
distance, to the north, beyond the blue waters of the lake, and 
nearly screened by intervening foliage, was seen a shining speck, 
the rival capital of Tezcoco; and, still further on, the dark belt of 
porphyry, girdling the valley around, like a rich setting which 
Nature had devised for the fairest of her jewels.” 


Cortéz easily descended with his troops by the mountain road 
towards the plain of the valley; and as he passed along the levels, 
or through the numerous villages and hamlets, he endeavored to 
foster and foment the ill feeling which he found secretly existing 
against the government of the Mexican Emperor. When he had 
advanced somewhat into the heart of the valley he was met by an 
embassy of the chief lords of the Aztec court, sent to him by .Mon- 
tezuma, with gifts of considerable value; but he rejected a proffered 
bribe of ‘four loads of gold to the General, and one to each of his 
captains, with a yearly tribute to their sovereign,”’ provided the 
Spanish troops would quit the country. Heedless of all menaced 
opposition as well as appeals to his avarice, he seems, at this 
period, to have cast aside the earlier and sordid motives which 
might then have been easily satisfied had his pursuit been gold 
alone. The most abundant wealth was cast at his feet; but the 
higher qualities of his nature were now allowed the fullest play, 
and strengthened him in his resolution to risk all in the daring and 
glorious project of subjecting a splendid empire to his control. 
Accordingly, he advanced though Amaquemecan, a town of several 
thousand inhabitants, where he was met by a nephew of the 
Emperor, the Lord of Tezcoco, who had been despatched by his 
vacillating uncle, at the head of a large number of influential per- 
sonages, to welcome the invaders to the capital. The friendly 
summons was of course not disregarded by Cortéz, who forthwith 
proceeded along the most splendid and massive structure of the 
New World—a gigantic causeway, five miles in length, con- 
structed of huge stones, which passed along the narrow strait of 
sand that separated the waters of Chalco from those of Tezcoco. 
The lakes were covered with boats filled with natives. Floating 

\ 


LAKE OF TEZCOCO — RECEPTION BY MONTEZUMA. 33 


islands, made of reeds and wicker-work, covered with soil, brimmed 
with luxuriant vegetation whose splendid fruits and odorous petals 
rested on the waters. Several large towns were built on artificial 
foundations in the lake. And, every where, around the Spaniards, 
were beheld the evidences of a dense population, whose edifices, 
agriculture, and labors denoted a high degree of civilization and 
intelligence. As the foreign warriors proceeded onwards towards 
the city, which rose before them with its temples, palaces and 
shrines, covered with hard stucco that glistened in the sun, they 
crossed a wooden drawbridge in the causeway; and, as they passed 
it, they felt that now, indeed, if they faltered, they were completely 
in the grasp of the Mexicans, and more effectually cut off from all 
retreat than they had been when the fleet was destroyed at Vera 
Cruz. 

Near this spot they were encountered by Montezuma with his 
court, who came forth in regal state to salute his future conqueror. 
Surrounded by all the pageantry and splendor of an oriental mon- 
arch, he descended from the litter in which he was borne from the 
city, and, leaning on the shoulders of the Lords of Tezcoco and of 
Iztapalapan, — his nephew and brother, — he advanced towards the 
Spaniards, under a canopy and over a cotton carpet, whilst his 
prostrate subjects manifested, by their abject demeanor, the fear or 
respect which the presence of their sovereign inspired. 

‘« Montezuma was at this time about forty years of age. His 
person was tall and slender, but not ill-made. His hair, which was 
black and straight, was not very long. His beard was thin; his 
complexion somewhat paler than is often found in his dusky, or 
rather copper-colored race. His features, though serious in their 
expression, did not wear the look of melancholy, or dejection, which 
characterizes his portrait, and which may well have settled on them 
at a later period. He moved with dignity, and his whole demeanor, 
tempered by an expression of benignity not to have been anticipated 
from the reports circulated of his character, was worthy of a great 
prince. Such is the picture left to us of the celebrated Indian 
Emperor in this his first interview with the white men.’’! 


As this mighty prince approached, Cortéz halted his men, and, 
advancing with a few of his principal retainers, was most cour- 
teously welcomed by Montezuma, who, adroitly concealing his cha- 
grin, diplomatically expressed the uncommon delight he experienced 
at this unexpected visit of the st-angers to his capital. Our hero 


1 Prescott. 


4) 


34 SPANIARDS ENTER THE CAPITAL. 


thanked him for his friendly welcome and bounteous gifts, — and 
hung around his neck a chain set with colored crystal. Monte- 
zuma then opened his gates to the Spaniards and appointed his 
brother to conduct the General with his troops, to the city. 

Here he found a spacious edifice, surrounded by a wall, assigned 
for his future residence; and, having stationed sentinels, and placed 
his cannon on the battlements so as to command all the important 
avenues to his palace, he proceeded to examine the city and to 
acquaint himself with the character, occupations, and temper of 
the people. 


1 «The province which constitutes the principal territory of Montezuma,” (says 
Cortéz in his letter to Charles the V.,) ‘is circular, and entirely surrounded by 
lofty and rugged mountains, and the circumference of it is full seventy leagues. 
In this plain there are two lakes which nearly occupy the whole of it, as the people 
use canoes for more than fifty leagues round. One of these lakes is of fresh water, 
and the other, which is larger, is of salt water. They are divided, on one side, by 
a small collection of high hills, which stand in the centre of the plain, and they 
unite in a level strait formed between these hills and the high mountains, which 
strait is a gun-shot wide, and the people of the cities and other settlements which 
are in these lakes, communicate together in their canoes by water, without the 
necessity of going by land. And as this great salt lake ebbs and flows with the 
tide, as the sea does, in every flood the water flows from it into the other fresh 
lake as impetuously as if it were a large river, and consequently at the ebb, the 
fresh lake flows into the salt. 

“This great city of Temixtitlan, (meaning Tenochtitlan, Mexico,) is founded 
in this salt lake ; and from terra firma to the body of the city, the distance is two 
leagues on whichever side they please to enter it. 

‘Tt has four entrances, or causeways, made by the hand of man, as wide as two 
horsemen’s lances. 

‘‘ The city is as large as Seville and Cordova. The streets (1 mean the principal 
ones,) are very wide, and others very narrow; and some of the latter and all the 
others are one-half land and the other half water, along which the inhabitants go 
in their canoes; and all the streets, at given distances, are open, so that the water 
passes from one to the other; and in all their openings, some of which are very 
wide, there are very wide bridges, made of massive beams joined together and well 
wrought; and so wide that ten horsemen may pass abreast over many of them.”— 
Letters of Cortéz to Charles V. 


CHAPTER IV. 
1519 — 1520. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF TENOCHTITLAN. — MONTEZUMA’S 
WAY OF LIFE— MARKET-PLACE.—CORTEZ AT THE GREAT TEM- 
PLE—DESCRIPTION OF IT.—PLACE OF SACRIFICE—SANCTUA- 
RIES — HUITZILOPOTCHTLI. — TEZCATLIPOCA — DANGER OF COR- 
TEZ— MONTEZUMA SEIZED.— MONTEZUMA A PRISONER — HIS 
SUBMISSIVENESS. —ARRIVAL OF NARVAEZ— CORTEZ’S DIPLO- 
MACY.— CORTEZ OVERCOMES NARVAEZ, AND RECRUITS HIS 
FORCES. 


Tue city of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, was, as we have already 
said, encompassed by the lake of 'Tezcoco, over which three solid 
causeways formed the only approaches. This inland sea was, 
indeed, “‘an archipelago of wandering islands.’? ‘The whole city 
was penetrated throughout its entire length by a principal street, 
which was intersected by numerous canals, crossed by draw- 
bridges ; and, wherever the eye could reach, long vistas of low 
stone buildings rose on every side among beautiful gardens or 
luxuriant foliage. The quadrangular palaces of the nobles who 
Montezuma encouraged to reside at his court, were spread over a 
wide extent of ground, embellished with beautiful fountains which 
shot their spray amid porticoes and columns of polished porphyry. 
The palace of Montezuma was so vast a pile, that one of the con- 
querors alleges its terraced roof afforded ample room for thirty 
knights to tilt in tournament. A royal armory was filled with 
curious and dangerous weapons, and adorned with an ample store of 
military dresses, equipments and armor. Huge granaries contained 
the tributary supplies which were brought to the Prince by the 
provinces for the maintenance of the royal family, and there was 
an aviary in which three hundred attendants fed and reared birds 
of the sweetest voice or rarest plumage; whilst, near it, rose a 
menagerie, filled with specimens of all the native beasts, together 
with a museum, in which, with an oddity of taste unparalleled in 
history, there had been collected a vast number of human monsters, 
cripples, dwarfs, Albinos and other freaks and caprices of nature. 


36 MONTEZUMA’S WAY OF LIFE—MARKET-PLACE. 


The royal gardens are described by eye-witnesses as spots of 
unsurpassed elegance, adorned with rare shrubs, medicinal plants, 
and ponds, supplied by aqueducts and fountains, wherein, amid 
beautiful flowers, the finest fish and aquatic birds were seen forever 
floating in undisturbed quiet. ‘The interior of the palace was 
equally attractive for its comfort and elegance. Spacious halls 
were covered with ceilings of odoriferous wood, while the lofty walls 
were hung with richly tinted fabrics of cotton, the skins of animals, 
or feather work wrought in mosaic imitation of birds, reptiles, 
insects and flowers. Nor was the Emperor alone amid the 
splendid wastes of his palace. A thousand women thronged 
these royal chambers, ministering to the tastes and passions of 
the elegant voluptuary. The rarest viands, from far and near, 
supplied his table, the service of which was performed by numerous 
attendants on utensils and equipage of the choicest material and 
shape. Four times, daily, the Emperor changed his apparel, and 
never put on again the dress he once had worn, or defiled his lips 
twice with the same vessels from which he fed. 

Such was the sovereign’s palace and way of life, nor can we 
suppose that this refinement of luxury was to be found alone in 
the dwelling of Montezuma and his nobles. It is to be regretted 
that we are not more fully informed of the condition of property, 
wealth and labor among the masses of this singular empire. The 
conquerors did not trouble themselves with acquiring accurate 
statistical information, nor do they seem to have counted num- 
bers carefully, except when they had enemies to conquer or spoil 
to divide. In all primitive nations, however, the best idea of a 
people is to be attained from visiting the market-place, — or rather 
the fair, — in which it is their custom to sell or barter the products 
of their industry; and, to this rendezvous of the Aztecs, Cortéz, 
with the astuteness that never forsook him during his perilous 
enterprise, soon betook himself after his arrival in the city. 

The market of Tenochtitlan was a scene of commercial activity 
as well as of humble thrift. It was devoted to all kinds of native 
traffic. In the centre of the city the conqueror found a magnificent 
square surrounded by porticoes, in which, it is alleged, that sixty 
thousand traders were engaged in buying and selling every species 
of merchandize produced in the realm; jewels, goldware, toys, 
curious imitations of natural objects, wrought with the utmost 
skill of deception; weapons of copper alloyed with tin, pottery 
of all degrees of fineness, carved vases, bales of richly dyed cotton ; 
beautifully woven feather-work, wild and tame animals, grain, fish, 


CORTEZ AT THE GREAT TEMPLE—DESCRIPTION OF IT. ol 


vegetables, all the necessaries of life and all its luxuries, together 
with restaurateurs and shops for the sale of medical drugs, con- 
fectionery, or stimulating drinks. It was, in fact, an immense 
bazaar, which, at a glance, gave an insight into the tastes, wants 
and productive industry of the nation. 
Satisfied with this inspection of the people and their talents, the 
next visit of the General was, doubtless, made with the double 
object of becoming acquainted with that class of men, who in all 
countries so powerfully influence public opinion, whilst, from the 
top of their tall temple, situated on their lofty central Teocalli or 
pyramid, he might, with a military eye, scan the general topo- 
graphy of the city. 
_ This pyramidal structure, or Great Temple, as it is generally 
called, was perhaps rather the base of a religious structure, than 
the religious edifice itself. We possess no accurate drawing of it 
among the contemporary or early relics of the conquest, that have 
descended to us; but it is known to have been pyramidal in 
shape, over one hundred and twenty feet in altitude, with a base 
of three hundred and twenty. It stood in a large area, surrounded 
by a wall eight feet high, sculptured with the figures of serpents in 
relief. From one end of the base of this structure, a flight of steps 
rose to a terrace at the base of the second story of the pyramid. 
Around this terrace, a person, in ascending, was obliged to pass 
until he came to the corner immediately above the first flight, 
where he encountered another set of steps, up which he passed 
to the second terrace, and so on, continuously, to the third and 
fourth terraces, until, by a fifth flight, he attained the summit 
platform of the Teocalli. These spaces or terraces, at each story, 
are represented to have been about six feet in width, so that three 
or four persons could easily ascend abreast. It will be perceived 
that in attaining the top of the edifice it was necessary to pass 
round it entirely four times and to ascend five stairways. Within 
the enclosure, built of stone and crowned with battlements, a 
village of five hundred houses might have been built. Its area 
was paved with smooth and polished stones, and the pyramid that 
rose in its centre seems to have been constructed as well for 
military as religious purposes, inasmuch as its architecture made 
it fully capable of resistance as a citadel; and we may properly 
assume this opinion as a fact, from the circumstance that the 
enclosing walls were entered by four gates, facing the cardinal 
points, while over each portal was erected a military arsenal filled 
with immense stores of warlike equipments. 


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PLACE OF SACRIFICE —SANCTUARIES—HUITZILOPOTCHTLI. 39 


When Cortéz arrived in front of this truncated pyramid, two 
priests and several caciques were in attendance, by order of 
Montezuma, to bear him in their arms to its summit. But the 
hardy conqueror declined this effeminate means of transportation, 
and marched up slowly at the head of his soldiers. On the paved 
and level area at the top, they found a large block of jasper, the 
peculiar shape of which showed it was the stone on which the 
bodies of the unhappy victims were stretched for sacrifice. Its 
convex surface, rising breast high, enabled the priest to perform 
more easily his diabolical task of removing the heart. Besides 
this, there were two sanctuaries erected on the level surface of 
the Tcocalli; two altars, glowing with a fire that was never 
extinguished; and a large circular drum, which was struck only 
on occasions of great public concern. 

Such was the Teocallt or Howse of God. There were other 
edifices, having the name of Teopan, or Places of God. Some 
writers allege that there were two towers erected on the great 
Teocalli of ‘Tenochtitlan ; but it may be safely asserted that there 
was at least one of these, which rose to the height of about fifty-six 
feet, and was divided into three stories, the lower being of stone, 
while the others were constructed of wrought and painted wood. 
In the basement of these towers were the sanctuaries, where two 
splendid altars had been erected to Huitzilopotchtli and Tezcatli- 
poca, over which the idol representatives of these divinities were 
placed in state. ; 

Within the enclosure of the Teocalli there were forty other 
temples dedicated to various Aztec gods. Besides these, there 
were colleges or residences and seminaries of the priests, together 
with a splendid house of entertainment, devoted to the accommo- 
dation of eminent strangers who visited the temple and the court. 
All these sumptuous ecclesiastical establishments were grouped 
around the pyramid, protected by the quadrangular wall, and 
built amid gardens and groves. 

Cortéz asked leave of the Emperor, who accompanied him on 
his visit, to enter the sanctuaries of the Aztec deities. In a 
spacious stuccoed saloon, roofed with carved and gilt timber, 
stood the gigantic idol of Huitzilopotchtli, the Mexican Mars. 
His countenance was harsh and menacing. In his hands he 
grasped a bow and golden arrows. He was girt with the folds 
of a serpent, formed of precious materials, whilst his left foot was 
feathered with the plumage of the humming-bird, from which he 
took his name. Around his throat hung suspended a massive 


AQ TEZCATLIPOCA — CORTEZ—MONTEZUMA SEIZED. 


necklace of alternate gold and silver hearts; and on the altar 
before him, three human hearts which had recently been torn 
from living breasts, were still quivering and bleeding, fresh from 
the immolated victims. 

In the other chamber, or sanctuary, were the milder emblems of 
Tezcatlipoca, who ‘created the world and watched it with provi- 
dential care.” The lineaments of this idol were those of a youth, 
whose image, carved in black and polished stone, was adorned 
with discs of burnished gold, and embellished with a_ brilliant 
shield. Nevertheless, the worship of this more benign deity was 
stained with homicide, for on its altar, in a plate of gold, the 
conqueror found five human hearts; and, in these dens of inhu- 
manity, Bernal Diaz tells us, that the $6 Stetioh was more oe, 
than in the slaughter houses of Castile!” 


Such is a brief summary of the observations made by the 
Spaniards during a week’s residence in the city. They found 
themselves in the heart of a rich and populous empire, whose 
civilization, however, was, by a strange contradiction for which 
we shall hereafter endeavor to account, stained with the most, 
shocking barbarity under the name of religion. The unscrupulous 
murder, which was dignified with the associations and practice of 
national worship, was by no means consolatory to the minds of 
men who were really in the power of semi-civilized rulers and 
bloody priests. They discovered, from their own experience, that 
the sovereign was both fickle fod feeble, and that a caprice, a 
hope, or a fear, might suffice to make him free his country from a 
handful of dangerous guests by offering them as sacrifices to his 
gods. The Tlascalans were already looked upon with no kind 
feelings by their hereditary foes. A spark might kindle a fatal 
flame. It was a moment for bold and unscrupulous action, and 
it was needful to obtain some signal advantage by which the 
Spaniards could, at least, effect their retreat, if not ensure an 
ultimate victory. 


News just then was brought to Cortéz that four of his country- 
men, whom he left behind at Cempoalla, had been treacherously 
slain by one of the tributary caciques of Montezuma; and this at 
once gave him a motive, or at least a pretext, for seizing the 
Emperor himself, as a hostage for the good faith of his nation. 
Accordingly, he visited Montezuma with a band of his most reli- 
able followers, who charged the monarch with the treachery of his 


MONTEZUMA A PRISONER—HIS SUBMISSIVENKESS. 4] 


subordinate, and demanded the apprehension of the cacique to 
answer for the slaughter of their inoffensive countrymen. Monte- 
zuma, of course, immediately disavowed the treason and ordered. 
the arrest of the Governor; but Cortéz would not receive an 
apology or verbal reparation of the injury, — although he professed 
to believe the exculpation of Montezuma himself,—unless that 
sovereign would restore the Spaniard’s confidence in his fidelity by 
quitting his palace and changing his residence to the quarters of 
the invaders! | 

This was, indeed, an unexpected blow. It was one of those 
strokes of unparalleled boldness which paralyzed their victim by 
sheer amazement. After considerable discussion and _ useless 
appeals, the entrapped Emperor tamely submitted to the sur- 
prising demand, for he saw, in the resolved faces of his armed 
and steel-clad foes, that resistance was useless, if he attempted to 
save his own life, with the small and unprepared forces that were 
at hand. 

For a while the most ceremonious respect was paid by the 
conqueror and his men to their royal prisoner, who, under strict 
surveillance, maintained his usual courtly pomp, and pererned all 
the functions of Emperor. But Cortéz soon became his master. 
The will of an effeminate king was no match for the indomitable 
courage, effrontery and genius of the Spanish knight. The offending 
eacique of Cempoalla was burned alive, either to glut his vengeance 
or inspire dread; and when the traitor endeavored to compromise 
Montezuma in his crime, fetters were placed for an hour on the limbs 
of the imprisoned sovereign. Every day the disgraced Emperor 
became, more and more, the mere minister of Cortéz. He was forced 
to discountenance publicly those who murmured at his confinement, 
or to arrest the leading conspirators for his deliverance. He 
granted a province to the Castilian crown and swore allegiance 
to it. He collected the tribute and revenue from dependant cities 
or districts in the name of the Spanish king; and, at last, struck a 
blow even at his hereditary and superstitious faith by ordering the 
great Teocalli to be purged of its human gore and the erection of 
an altar on its summit, on which, before the cross and the images 
of the Virgin and her Son, the Ghristian mass might be celebrated 
in the presence of the Aztec multitude. 


It was at this moment, when Cortéz tried the national nerve 
most daringly by interfering with the religious superstitions of a 


dissatisfied town, and when every symptom of a general rebellion 
6 . 


42 ARRIVAL OF NARVAEZ—CORTEZ’S DIPLOMACY. 


was visible, that the conqueror received the startling news of the 
arrival on the coast of Don Pampuito pe Narvaez, with eighteen 
vessels and nine hundred men, who had been sent, by the revenge- 
ful Velasquez, to arrest the hero and send him in chains to St. 
Jago. 

A more unfortunate train of circumstances can scarcely be con- 
ceived. In the midst of an enemy’s capital, with a handful of 
men,— menaced by a numerous and outraged nation, on the 
one hand, and, with a Spanish force sent, in the name of law 
by authorities to whom he owed loyal respect, to. arrest him, 
on the other,—it is indeed difficult to imagine a situation better 
calculated to try the soul and task the genius of a general. But it 
was one of those perilous emergencies which, throughout his whole 
career, seem to have imparted additional energy, rather than 
dismay, to the heart of Cortéz, and which prove him to have been, 
like Nelson, a man who never knew the sensation of fear. Nor 
must it be imagined that difficulty made him rash. Seldom has a 
hero appeared in history more perfectly free from precipitancy after 
he undertook his great enterprise ; — and, in the period under con- 
sideration, this is fully exhibited in the diplomacy with which he 
approached the hostile Spaniards on the coast who had been 
despatched to dislodge and disgrace him. He resolved, at once, 
not to abandon what he had already gained in the capital; but, at 
the same time, he endeavored to tranquilize or foil Narvaez if he 
could not win him over to his enterprise; for it was evidently the 
policy of the newly arrived general to unite in a spoil which was 
almost ready for division rather than to incur the perils and uncer- 
tainty of another conquest. 

Accordingly Cortéz addressed a letter to Narvaez requesting him 
not to kindle a spirit of insubordination among the natives by pro- 
claiming his enmity. Yet this failed to affect his jealous country- 
man. He then desired Narvaez to receive his band as brothers in 
arms, and to share the treasure and fame of the conquest. But 
this, also, was rejected ; while the loyal tool of Velasquez diligently 
applied himself to fomenting the Aztec discontent against his coun- 
trymen, and proclaimed his design of marching to Mexico to 
release the Emperor from the grasp of his Spanish oppressor. 

There was now no other opening for diplomacy, nor was delay 
to be longer suffered. Cortéz, therefore, leaving the mutinous 
capital in the hands of Pedro de Alvarado, with a band of but one 
hundred and fifty men to protect the treasure he had amassed, — 
departed for the shores of the Gulf with only seventy soldiers, but 


CORTEZ OVERCOMES NARVAEZ, AND RECRUITS HIS FORCES. 43 


was joined, on his way, by one hundred and twenty men who had 
retreated from the garrison at Vera Cruz. He was not long in 
traversing the plains and Cordilleras towards the eastern sea; and 
falling suddenly on the camp of Narvaez, in the dead of night, he 
turned the captured artillery against his foe, seized the general, 
received the capitulation of the army of nine hundred well 
equipped men, and soon healed the factions which of course 
existed between the conquerors and the conquered. He had 
acquired the préstige which always attends extraordinary success 
or capacity; and men preferred the chances of splendid results 
under such a leader to the certainty of moderate gain under a 
general who did not possess his matchless genius. Thus it was 
that the lordly spirit and commanding talents of Cortéz enabled 
him to convert the very elements of disaster into the means of 
present strength and future success ! 


CHAPTER V. 
1520. 


CORTEZ RETURNS TO THE CAPITAL—CAUSES OF THE REVOLT 
AGAINST THE SPANIARDS. — CORTEZ CONDEMNS ALVARADO — 
HIS CONDUCT TO MONTEZUMA.—— BATTLE IN THE CITY— MON- 
TEZUMA MEDIATES. — FIGHT ON THE GREAT TEMPLE OR TEO- 
CALLI. — RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS — NOCHE TRISTE. — 
FLIGHT OF THE SPANIARDS TO TACUBA. 


Wurst Cortéz was beset with the difficulties recounted in our 
last chapter, and engaged in overcoming Narvaez on the coast, the 
news reached him of an insurrection in the capital, towards which 
he immediately turned his steps. On approaching the city, intelli- 
gence was brought that the active hostilities of the natives had 
been changed, for the last fortnight, into a blockade, and that the 
garrison had suffered dreadfully during his absence. Montezuma, 
too, despatched an envoy who was instructed to impress the con- 
queror with the Emperor’s continued fidelity, and to exculpate him 
from all blame in the movement against Alvarado. 

On the 24th June, 1520, Cortéz reached the capital. On all 
sides he saw the melancholy evidences of war. ‘There were neither 
greeting crowds on the causeways, nor boats on the lake; bridges 
were broken down; the brigantines or boats he had constructed to 
secure a retreat over the waters of these inland seas, were destroyed ; 
the whole population seemed to have vanished, and silence brooded 
over the melancholy scene. ! 


The revolt against the lieutenant Alvarado was generally attri- 
buted to his fiery impetuosity, and to the inhuman and motiveless 
slaughter committed by the Spanish troops, under his authority, 
during the celebration of a solemn Aztec festival, called the ‘in- 
censing of Huitzilopotchtli.”” Six hundred victims, were, on that 
occasion, slain by the Spaniards, in cold blood, in the neighbor- 
hood of the Great Temple; nor was a single native, engaged in 


45 coRTEZ CONDEMNS ALVARADO—HIS CONDUCT TO MONTEZUMA. 


the mysterious rites, left alive to tell the tale of the sudden and 
brutal assault. 

Alvarado, it is true, pretended that his spies had satisfactorily 
proved the existence of a well founded conspiracy, which was 
designed to explode upon this occasion; but the evidence is not 
sufficient to justify the disgraceful and hourid deed that must for- 
ever tarnish his fame. It is far more probable that rapacity | 
was the true cause of the onslaught, and that the reckless compan- 
ion of the conqueror, who had been entrusted with brief authority 
during his absence, miscalculated the power of his Indian foe, and 
confounded the warlike Mexican of the valley with the weaker 
soldiers, dwelling in more emasculating climates, whom he had so 
rapidly eAafounded and overthrown in his march to the capital. 

It may well be supposed that this slaughter, combined with 
the other causes of discontent already existing among the Aztecs, 
served to kindle the outraged national feeling ‘with intense hatred 
of the invaders. ‘The city rose in arms, and the Spaniards were 
hemmed within their defences. Montezuma himself addressed 
the people from the battlements, and stayed their active as- 
sault upon the works of Alvarado; but they strictly blockaded 
the enemy in his castle, cut off all supplies, and entrenched them- 
selves in hastily constructed barricades thrown up around the habi- 
tation of the Spaniards, resolved to rest behind these works until 
despair and famine would finally and surely throw the helpless 
victims into their power. Here the invaders, with scant provisions 
and brackish water, awaited the approach of Cortéz, who received 
the explanations of Alvarado with manifest disgust : — “‘ You have 
been false to your trust,” said he, “‘ you have done badly, indeed, 
and your conduct has been that of a madman!” 

Yet this was not a moment to break entirely with Alvarado, 
whose qualities, and perhaps, even, whose conduct, rendered him 
popular with a large class of the Spanish adventurers. The newly 
recruited forces of Cortéz gave the conqueror additional strength, 
for he was now at the head of no less than twelve hundred and 
fifty Spaniards, and eight thousand auxiliaries, chiefly Tlascalans. 
Yet, under the untoward circumstances, the increase of his forces 
augmented the difficulties of their support. Montezuma hastened 
to greet him. But the Spaniard was in no mood to trust the 
Emperor; and, as his Mexican subjects made no sign of recon- 
ciliation or submission, he refused the proferred interview : — 
‘6 What have I,” exclaimed he, haughtily, ‘‘to do with this dog of 
a king who suffers us to starve before his eyes!” He would - 


46 BATTLE IN THE CITY — MONTEZUMA MEDIATES. 


- receive no apology from his countrymen who sought to exculpate 
the sovereign, or from the mediating nobles of the court : — ‘‘ Go 
tell your master,”’ was his reply, ‘‘ to open the markets, or we will 
do it for him, at his cost!” 

But the stern resistance of the natives was not intermitted. On 
the contrary, active preparations were made to assault the irregular 
pile of stone buildings which formed the Palace of Axayacatl, in 
which the Spaniards were lodged. The furious populace rushed 
through every avenue towards this edifice, and encountered with 
wonderful nerve and endurance, the ceaseless storm of iron hail 
which its stout defenders rained upon them from every quarter. Yet 
the onset of the Aztecs was almost too fierce to be borne much 
longer by the besieged, when the Spaniards resorted to the linger- 
ing authority of Montezuma to save them from annihilation. The 
pliant Emperor, still their prisoner, assumed his royal robes, and, 
with the symbol of sovereignty in his hand, ascended the central tur- 
ret of the palace. Immediately, at this royal apparition, the tumult 
of the fight was hushed whilst the king addressed his subjects in the 
language of conciliation and rebuke. Yet the appeal was not satis- 
factory or effectual. ‘‘ Base Aztec,’? — shouted the chiefs, — ‘‘ the 
white men have made you a woman, fit only to weave and spin !”’— 
whilst a cloud of stones, spears and arrows fell upon the monarch, 
who sank wounded to the ground, though the bucklers of the 
Spaniards were promptly interposed to shield his person from 
violence. He was borne to his apartments below; and, bowed to 
the earth by the humiliation he had suffered alike from his subjects 
and his foes, he would neither receive comfort nor permit his 
wounds to be treated by those who were skilled in surgery. He 
reclined, in moody silence, brooding over his ancient majesty and 
the deep disgrace which he felt he had too long survived. 


Meanwhile the war without continued to rage. The great 
Teocalli or Mound-Temple, already described, was situated ata 
short distance opposite the Spanish defences; and, from this 
elevated position, which commanded the invader’s quarters, a body 
of five or six hundred Mexicans, began to throw their missiles into 
the Spanish garrison, whilst the natives, under the shelter of the 
sanctuaries, were screened from the fire of the besieged. It 
was necessary to dislodge this dangerous armament. An assault, 
under Escobar, was hastily prepared, but the hundred men who 
composed it, were thrice repulsed, and obliged finally to retreat 
with considerable loss. Cortéz had been wounded and disabled in 


FIGHT ON THE GREAT TEMPLE OR TEOCALLI. AN 


his left hand, in the previous fight, but he bound his buckler to the 
crippled limb, and, at the head of three hundred chosen men, accom- 
panied by Alvarado, Sandoval, Ordaz and others of his most gallant 
cavaliers, he sallied from the besieged palace. It was soon found 
that horses were useless in charging the Indians over the smooth and 
slippery pavements of the town and square, and accordingly Cortéz 
sent them back to his quarters ; yet he managed to repulse the squad- 
rons in the court-yard of the Teocalli, and to hold them in check 
by a file of arquebusiers. The singular architecture of this Mound- 
Temple will be recollected by the reader, and the difficulty of its 
ascent, by means of five stairways and four terraces, was now in- 
creased by the crowds that thronged these narrow avenues. From 
stair to stair, from gallery to gallery, the Spaniards fought onward 
and upward with resistless courage, incessantly flinging their Indian 
foes, by main strength, over the narrow ledges. At length they 
reached the level platform of the top, which was capable of contain- 
ing a thousand warriors. Here, at the shrine of the Aztec war- 
god, was a site for the noblest contest in the empire. The area 
was paved with broad and level stones. Free from all impedi- 
ments, it was unguarded at its edges by battlements, parapets, or, 
any defences which could protect the assailants from falling if they 
approached the sides too closely. Quarter was out of the question. 
The battle was hand to hand, and body to body. Combatants 
grappled and wrestled in deadly efforts to cast each other from the 
steep and sheer ledges. Indian priests ran to and fro with stream- 
ing hair and sable garments, urging their superstitious children to 
the contest. Men tumbled headlong over the sides of the area, 
and even Cortéz himself, by superior agility, alone, was saved from 
the grasp of two warriors who dragged him to the brink of the 
lofty pyramid and were about to dash him to the earth. 

For three hours the battle raged until every Indian combatant 
was either slain on the summit or hurled to the base. Forty-five 
of the Spaniards were killed, and nearly all wounded. A few 
Aztec priests, alone, of all the Indian band, survived to behold the 
destruction of the sanctuaries, which had so often been desecrated 
- by the hideous rites and offerings of their bloody religion. 

For a moment the natives were panic-struck by this masterly 
and victorious manceuvre, whilst the Spaniards passed unmolested 
to their quarters, from which, at night, they again sallied to burn 
three hundred houses of the citizens. 

Cortéz thought that these successes would naturally dismay the 
Mexicans, and proposed, through Mariana, — his faithful interpre- 


45 RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS — NOCHE TRISTE. 


ter, who had continued throughout his adventures the chief 
reliance of the Spaniards for intercourse with the Indians,— that 
this conflict should cease at once, for the Aztecs must be con- 
vinced that a soldier who destroyed their gods, laid a part of their 
capital in ruins, and was able to inflict still more direful chastise- 
ment, was, indeed, invincible. 

But the day of successful threats had passed. The force of the 
Aztecs was still undiminished; the bridges were destroyed; the 
numbers of the Spaniards were lessened; hunger and thirst were 
beginning to do their deadly work on the invaders; ‘there 
will be only too few of you left,” said they in reply, — “to satisfy 
the revenge of our gods.” 


There was no longer time for diplomacy or delay, and, accord- | 
ingly, Cortéz resolved to quit the city as soon as practicable, and 
prepared the means to -accomplish this desirable retreat; but, on 
his first attempt he was unable to reach the open country through 
the easily defended highway of the capital or the enfilading canals 
and lanes. From house tops and cross streets, mnumerable 
Indians beset his path wherever he turned. Yet it was essential 
for the salvation of the Spaniards that they should evacuate the 
city. No other resource remained, and, desperate as it was, the 
conqueror persevered, unflinchingly, amid the more hazardous 
assaults of the Mexicans, and all the internal discords of his 
own band, whom a common danger did not perfectly unite. He 
packed the treasure, gathered during the days of prosperous 
adventure, on his stoutest horses, and, with a portable bridge, to be 
thrown hastily over the canals, he departed from his stronghold on 
the dark and rainy evening which has become memorable in Ameri- 
can history, as the noche triste, or ‘“‘melancholy night.” The 
Mexicans were not usually alert during the darkness, and Cortéz 
hoped that he might steal off unperceived in this unwatchful 
period. But he was mistaken in his calculations. The Aztecs 
had become acquainted with Spanish tactics and were eager for 
the arrival of the moment, by day or night, when the expected 
victims would fall into their hands. As soon as the Spanish band 
had advanced a short distance along the causeway of Tlacopan, the 
attack began by land and water; for the Indians assaulted them 
from their boats, with spears and arrows, or quitting their skiffs, 
grappled with the retreating soldiers in mortal agony, and rolled 
them from the causeway into the waters of the lake. The bridge 
was wedged inextricably between the sides of a dyke, whilst am- 


FLIGHT OF THE SPANIARDS TO TACUBA. 49 


munition wagons, heavy guns, bales of rich cloths, chests of gold, 
artillery, and the bodies of men or horses, were piled in heaps on 
the highway or rolled into the water. Forty-six of the cavalry 
were cut off and four hundred and fifty of the Christians Ixilled, 
whilst four thousand of the Indian auxiliaries perished.t The 
General’s baggage, papers, and minute diary of his adventures, 
were swallowed in the waters. The ammunition, the artillery, and 
every musket were lost. Meanwhile Montezuma had _ perished 
from his wounds some days before the sortie was attempted, and 
his body had been delivered to his subjects with suitable honors. 
Alvarado,— Tonatiuh, the ‘child of the sun,” as the natives 
delighted to call him, escaped during the noche triste by a miracu- 
lous leap with the aid of his lance-staff over a canal, to whose 
edge he had been pursued by the foe. And when Cortéz, at 
length, found himself with his thin and battered band, on the 
heights of Tacuba, west of the city, beyond the borders of the 
lake, it may be said, without exaggeration, that nothing was left 
to reassure him but his indomitable heart and the faithful Indian 
girl whose lips, and perhaps whose counsel, had been so useful in 
his service. ‘ 


1'These numbers are variously stated by different authorities.—See Prescott, vol. 
2d, p. 377. 


CHAPTER, Vil. 
1520. 


RETREAT TO OTUMBA.—CORTEZ IS ENCOUNTERED BY A NEW 
ARMY OF AZTECS AND AUXILIARIES.— VICTORY OF THE SPAN- 
IARDS AT OTUMBA.—PROPOSED RE-ALLIANCE OF AZTECS AND 
TLASCALANS.—FORAYS OF CORTEZ—-REDUCTION OF THE EAST- 
ERN REGIONS.—CORTEZ PROPOSES THE RE-CONQUEST—SENDS 
OFF THE DISAFFECTED.—CORTEZ SETTLES THE TLASCALAN 
SUCCESSION. 


AFTER the disasters and fatigues of the noche triste, the melan- 
choly and broken band of Cortéz rested for a day at Tacuba, 
whilst the Mexicans returned to their capital, probably to bury the 
dead and purify they city. It is singular, yet it is certain, that 
they did not follow up their successes by a death blow at the 
disarmed Spaniards. But this momentary paralysis of their efforts 
“was not to be trusted, and accordingly Cortéz began to retreat 
eastwardly, under the guidance of the Tlascalans, by a circuitous 
route around the northern limits of lake Zumpango. The flying 
forces and their auxiliaries were soon in a famishing condition, 
subsisting alone on corn or on wild cherries gathered in the forest, 
with occasional refreshment and support from the carcase of a 
horse that perished by the way. For six days these wretched 
fragments of the Spanish army continued their weary pilgrimage, 
and, on the seventh, reached Otumba on the way from Mexico to 
Tlascala. Along the whole of this march the fainting and dis- 
pirited band was, ever and anon, assailed by detached squadrons 
of the enemy, who threw stones and rolled rocks on the men as 
they passed beneath precipices, or assaulted them with arrows and 
spears. As Cortéz advanced, the enemy gathered in his rear and 
bade him ‘Go on whither he should meet the vengeance due to 
his robbery and his crimes,’’ for the main body of the Aztecs had 
meanwhile passed by an eastern route across the country, and 
placed itself in a position to intercept the Spaniards on the plains 
of Otumba. As the army of the conqueror crossed the last divid- 
ing ridge that overlooked the vale of Otompan, it beheld the levels 


VICTORY OF THE SPANIARDS AT OTUMBA. 51 


below filled, as far as eye could reach, with the spears and stand- 
ards of the Aztec victors, whose forces had been augmented by 
levies from the territory of the neighboring Tezcoco. Cortéz pre- 
sented a sorry array to be launched from the cliffs upon this sea of 
lances. But he was not the man to tremble or hesitate. He 
spread out his main body as widely as possible, and guarded the 
flanks by the twenty horsemen who survived the noche triste, and 
the disastrous march from Tacuba. He ordered his cavalry not to 
cast away their lances, but to aim them constantly at the faces of 
the Indians, whilst the infantry were to thrust and not to strike 
with their swords ;—the leaders of the enemy were especially to 
be selected as marks ; and he, finally, bade his men trust in God, 
who would not permit them to perish by the hands of infidels. 
The signal was given for the charge. Spaniard and Tlascalan 
fought hand to hand with the foe. Long and doubtfully the battle 
raged on both sides, until every Spaniard was wounded. Sud- 
denly Cortéz descried the ensignia of the enemy’s commanding 
general, and knowing that the fortunes of the day, in all proba- 
bility, depended upon securing or slaying that personage, he 
commanded Sandoval, Olid, Alvarado, and Avila to follow and 
support him as he dashed towards the Indian chief. The Aztecs 
fell back as he rushed on, leaving a lane for the group of galloping 
cavaliers. Cortéz and his companions soon reached the fatal spot, 
and the conqueror driving his lance through the Aztec leader, left 
him to be dispatched by Juan de Salamanca. This was the work 
of a moment. The death of the general struck a panic into the 
combined forces of Tenochtitlan and Tezcoco, and a promiscuous 
flight began on all sides. At sunset, on the 8th of July, 1520, 
the Spaniards were victors on the field of Otumba, and gathering 
together in an Indian temple, which they found on an eminence 
overlooking the plain, they offered up a Te Dewm for their miracu- 
lous preservation as well as for the hope with which their success 
reinspired them.! 


The next day the invaders quitted their encampment on the battle 
field and hastened towards the territory of their friends, the 
Tlascalans. The Spaniards now presented themselves to the 
rulers of their allies in a different guise from that they wore when 
they first advanced towards Mexico. Fully equipped, mounted, 
and furnished with ammunition, they had then compelled the 


' We nave no accurate estimate of the numbers engaged in this battle, or of the 
slain. 


52 PROPOSED RE-ALLIANCE OF AZTECS AND TLASCALANS. 


prompt submission of the Tlascalans, and, assuring their alliance, 
had conquered the Cholulans, and obtained the control even of the 
capital and person of the Aztec Emperor himself. But now they 
returned defeated, plundered, unarmed, poor, scarcely clad, and 
with the loss of a large part of those Indian allies who had 
accompanied the expedition. There was reason for disheartening 
fear in the breast of Cortéz, had it been susceptible of such an 
emotion. But the Lord of Tlascala reassured him, when he 
declared that their ‘‘ cause was common against Mexico, and, 
come weal, come woe, they would prove loyal to the death!”’ 

The Spaniards were glad to find a friendly palace in Tlascala, 
in which to shelter themselves after the dreadful storms that had 
recently broken on their head. Yet, in the quiet of their retreat, 
and in the excitement of their rallying blood, they began to reflect 
upon the past and the disheartening aspect of the future. Mur- 
murs, which were at first confined to the barrack, at length 
assumed public. significance, and a large body of the men, chiefly 
the soldiers of Narvaez, presented to Cortéz a petition which was 
headed by his own secretary, demanding permission to retreat to La 
Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. Just at this moment, too, Cuitlahua, 
who mounted the throne of Mexico on the death of Montezuma, 
despatched a mission to the Tlascalans, proposing to bury the 
hatchet, and to unite in sweeping the Spaniards from the realm. 
The hours which were consumed by the Tlascalans in deliberating 
on this dread proposal were full of deep anxiety to Cortéz; for, in 
the present feeble condition of his Spanish force, his whole reliance 
consisted in adroitly playing off one part of the Indian popula- 
tion against another. If he lost the aid, alliance, or neutrality of 
the Tlascalans, his cause was lost, and all hope of reconquest, or 
perhaps even of retreat, was gone forever. 

The promised alliance of the Mexicans was warmly and sternly 
supported in the debates of the Tlascalan council by some of the 
nobles; yet, after full and even passionate discussion, which ended 
in personal violence between two of the chiefs, it was unanimously 
resolved to reject the proposal of their hereditary foes, who had 
never been able to subdue them as a nation in battle, but hoped to 
entrap them into alliance in the hour of common danger. These 
discussions, together with the positive rejection by Cortéz of the 
Spanish petition, seem to have allayed the anxiety of the invaders 
to return to Vera Cruz. With the assured friendship of the 
Tlascalans they could rely upon some good turn in fortune, and, 
at length, the vision of the conquest might be realized under the 


FORAYS OF CORTEZ—REDUCTION OF THE EASTERN REGIONS. 53 


commander who had led them through success and defeat with 
equal skill. 

Accordingly Cortéz did not allow ‘his men to remain long in 
idle garrisons, brooding over the past, or becoming moody and 
querulous. If he could not conquer a nation by a blow, he 
might perhaps subdue a tribe by a foray, while the military suc- 
cess, or golden plunder, would serve to keep alive the fire of 
enterprise in the breasts of his troopers. His first attack, after 
he had recruited the strength of his men, was on the Tepeacans, 
whom he speedily overthrew, and in whose chief town of Tepeaca, 
on the Mexican frontier, he established his head quarters, in the 
midst of a flourishing and productive district, whence his supplies 
were easily gathered. Here he received an invitation from the 
cacique of Quauhquechollan,— a town of thirty thousand inhabi- 
tants, whose chief was impatient of the Mexican yoke,— to march 
to his relief. Olid was despatched on this expedition ; but getting 
entangled in disputes and frays with the Cholulans, whose people 
he assaulted and took prisoners, Cortéz himself assumed command 
of the expedition. In fact, the conqueror was singularly unfor- 
tunate in the conduct of his subordinates, for all his disasters arose 
from confidence in men whose judgment or temper was unequal 
to the task and discipline of control. In the assault and capture 
of this town, Cortéz and his men obtained a rich booty. They 
followed up the blow by taking the strong city of Itzocan, which 
had also been held by a Mexican garrison; and here, too, the 
captors seized upon rich spoils, while the Indian auxiliaries were 
soon inflamed by the reports of booty, and hastened in numbers to 
the chief who led them to victory and plunder. 


Cortéz returned to Tepeaca from these expeditions, which were 
not alone predatory in their character, but were calculated to pave 
the way for his military approach once more to the city of Mexico, 
as soon as his schemes ripened for the conquest. The ruling idea 
of ultimate success never for a moment left his mind. From 
Tepeaca he despatched his officers on various expeditions, and 
marched Sandoval-against a large body of the enemy lying 
between his camp and Vera Cruz. These detachments defeated 
the Mexicans in two battles; reduced the whole country which is 
now known as lying between Orizaba and the western skirts of the 
plain of Puebla, and thus secured the communication with the sea- 
coast. ‘Those who are familiar with the geography of Mexico, 
will see at a glance, with what masterly generalship the dispo- 


54 CORTEZ PROPOSES THE RE-CONQUEST. 


sitions of Cortéz were made to secure the success of his darling 
project. Nor can we fail to recognize the power of a single 
indomitable will over masses of Christians and Indians, in the 
wonderful as well as successful control which the conqueror ob- 
tained in his dealings with his countrymen as well as the natives 
at this period of extreme danger. When Mexico was lost after 
the noche triste, the military resources of Cortéz were really 
nothing, for his slender band was deprived of its most effective 
weapons, was broken in moral courage and placed on an equality, 
as to arms, with the Indians. The successes he obtained at 
Otumba, Tlascala, Tepeaca, and elsewhere, not only re-established 
the prestige of his genius among his countrymen, but affected even 
the Indians. The native cities and towns in the adjacent country 
appealed to him to decide in their difficulties, and his discretion 
and justice, as an arbitrator, assured him an ascendancy which it 
is surprising that a stranger who was ignorant of their language 
could acquire among men who were in the semi-civilized and 
naturally jealous state in which he found the Aztec and Tlascalan 
tribes. ‘Thus it is that, under the influence of his will and genius, 
‘Ca new empire grew up, in the very heart of the land, forming 
a counterpoise to the colossal power which had so long over- 
shadowed it.” 


In the judgment of Cortéz, the moment had now arrived when 
he was strong enough, and when it was proper, that he should 
attempt the re-conquest of the capital. His alliance with the 
Tlascalans reposed upon a firm basis, and consequently he could 
rely upon adequate support from the Indians who would form the 
majority of his army. Nor were his losses of military equipments 
and stores unrepaired. Fortune favored him by the arrival of 
several vessels at Vera Cruz, from which he obtained munitions 
of war and additional troops. One hundred and fifty well provided. 
men and twenty horses were joined to his forces by these arrivals. 

Before his departure, however, he despatched the few discon- 
tented men from his camp and gave them a vessel with which they 
might regain their homes. He wrote an account of his adventures, 
moreover, to his government in Spain, and besought his sovereign 
to confirm his authority in the lands and over the people he might 
add to the Spanish crown. He addressed, also, the Royal Audi- 
encia at St. Domingo to interest its members in his cause, and 
when he despatched four vessels from Vera Cruz for additional 


CORTEZ SETTLES THE TLASCALAN SUCCESSION. 55 


military supplies, he freighted them with specimens of gold and 
Indian fabrics to inflame the cupidity of new adventurers. 

In Tlascala, he settled the question of succession in the govern- 
ment; constructed new arms and caused old ones to be repaired ; 
made powder with sulphur obtained from the volcano of Popoca- 
topetl; and, under the direction of his builder, Lopez, prepared 
the timber for brigantines, which he designed to carry, in pieces, 
and launch on the lake at the town of Tezcoco. At that port, he 
resolved to prepare himself fully for the final attack, and, this time, 
he determined to assault the enemy’s capital by water, as well as 
by land. 


CHAPTER VII. 
1520 — 1521. 


DEATH OF CUITLAHUA—HE IS SUCCEEDED BY GUATEMOZIN. — 
AZTECS LEARN THE PROPOSED RE-CONQUEST— CORTEZ’S FORCES 
FOR THIS ENTERPRISE. —CORTEZ AT TEZCOCO—HIS PLANS AND 
ACTS.—MILITARY EXPEDITIONS OF CORTEZ IN THE VALLEY. — 
OPERATIONS AT CHALCO AND CUERNAVACA.—XOCHIMILCO — 
RETURN TO TACUBA.—CORTEZ RETURNS TO TEZCOCO AND IS 


REINFORCED. 


AFTER a short and brilliant reign of four months, Cuitlahua, 
the successor of Montezuma, died of small. pox, which, at 
that period, raged throughout Mexico, and he was succeeded by 
Guauhtemotzin, or, Guatemozin, the nephew of the two last 
Emperors. This sovereign ascended the Aztec throne in his 
twenty-fifth year, yet he seems to have been experienced as a 
soldier and firm as a patriot. 

It is not to be imagined that the Aztec court was long ignorant 
of the doings of Cortéz. It was evident that the bold and daring 
Spaniard had not only been unconquered in heart and resolution, 
but that he even meditated a speedy return to the scene of his 
former successful exploits. The Mexicans felt sure that, upon 
this occasion, his advent and purposes would be altogether undis- 
guised, and that when he again descended to the valley in which 
their capital nestled, he would, in all probability, be prepared to 
sustain himself and his followers in any position his good fortune 
and strong arm might secure to him. ‘The news, moreover, of his 
firm alliance with the Tlascalans and all the discontented tributaries 
of the Aztec throne, as well as of the reinforcements and muni- 
tions he received from Vera Cruz, was quickly brought to the city 
of Mexico; and every suitable preparation was made, by strength- 
ening the defences, encouraging the vassals, and disciplining the 
troops, to protect the menaced empire from impending ruin. 


Nor was Cortéz, in his turn, idle in exciting the combined 
forces of the Spaniards and Indians for the last effort which it was 
probable he could make for the success of his great enterprise. 


CORTEZ AT TEZCOCO —HIS PLANS AND ACTS. 57 


His Spanish force consisted of nigh six hundred men, forty 
of whom were cavalry, together with eighty arquebusiers and 
crossbowmen. Nine cannon of small calibre, suppled with indif- 
ferent powder, constituted his train of artillery. His army of 
Indian allies is estimated at the doubtless exaggerated number of 
over one hundred thousand, armed with the maquahuatil, pikes, 
bows, arrows, and divided into battalions, each with its own 
banners, insignia and commanders. His appeal to all the members 
of this motley array was couched in language likely to touch the 
passions, the bigotry, the enthusiasm and avarice of various 
classes ; and, after once more crossing the mountains, and reach- 
ing the margin of the lakes, he encamped on the 31st of December, 
1520, within the venerable precincts of Tezcoco, ‘‘the place of 
rest.”’ 


At Tezcoco, Cortéz was firmly planted on the eastern edge of 
the valley of Mexico, in full sight of the capital which lay across 
the lake, near its western shore, at the distance of about twelve 
miles. Behind him, towards the sea-coast, he commanded the 
country, as we have already related, while, by passes through 
lower spurs of the mountains, he might easily communicate with 
the valleys of which the Tlascalans and Cholulans were masters. 

Fortifying himself strongly in his dwelling and in the quarters 
of his men, in Tezcoco, he at once applied himself to the task 
of securing such military positions in the valley and in the neigh- 
borhood of the great causeway between the lakes as would com- 
mand an outlet from the capital by land, and enable him to 
advance across the waters of Tezcoco without the annoyance of 
enemies who might sally forth from strongholds on his left flank. 
On his right, the chain of lakes, extending farther than the eye 
can reach, furnished the best protection he could desire. Accord- 
ingly, he first of all reduced and destroyed the ancient city of 
Iztapalapan,— a place of fifty thousand inhabitants, distant about 
six leagues from the town of Tezcoco,— which was built on the 
narrow isthmus dividing the lake of that name from the waters of 
Chalco. He next directed his forces against the city of Chalco, 
lying on the eastern extremity of the lake that bore its name, 
where his army was received in triumph by the peaceful citizens 
after the evacuation of the Mexican garrison. Such were the 
chief of his military and precautionary expeditions, until the 
arrival of the materials for the boats or brigantines which Martin 
Lopez, and his four Spanish assistant carpenters, had already 


et. 


58 MILITARY EXPEDITIONS OF CORTEZ IN THE VALLEY. 


put together and tried on the waters of Zahuapan; and which, 
after a successful experiment, they had taken to pieces again and 
borne in fragments to 'Tezcoco. 


Early in the spring of 1521, Cortéz entrusted his garrison at 
Tezcoco to Sandoval, and, with three hundred and fifty Spaniards, 
and nearly all his Indian allies, departed on an expedition designed 
to reconnoitre the capital. He passed from his stronghold north- 
wardly around the head of the lakes north of Tezcoco,— one of 
which is now called San Cristoval,—and took possession of the 
insular town of Xaltocan. Passing thence along the western 
edge of the vale of Anahuac or Mexico, he reached the city of 
Tacuba, west of the capital, with which so many disastrous recol- 
lections were connected on his first sad exit from the imperial city. 
During this expedition the troops of the conqueror were almost 
daily engaged in skirmishes with the guerilla forces of the Aztecs ; 
yet, notwithstanding their constant annoyance and stout resistance, 
the Spaniards were invariably successful and even managed to 
secure some booty of trifling value. After a fortnight of rapid 
marching, fighting and reconnoitering, Cortéz and his men re- 
turned to Tezcoco. Here he was met by an embassy from the 
friendly Chalcans and pressed for a sufficient force to sustain them 
against the Mexicans, who despatched the warriors of certain 
neighboring and loyal strongholds to annoy the inhabitants of a 
town which had exhibited a desire to fraternize with the invading 
Spaniards. Indeed, the Aztecs saw the importance of maintaining 
the control of a point which commanded the most important 
avenue to their capital from the Atlantic coast. The wearied 
troops of Cortéz were in no plight to respond to the summons of 
the Chalcans at that moment, for their hurried foray and incessant 
conflicts with the enemy had made them anxious for the repose 
they might justly expect in Tezcoco. Nevertheless, Cortéz did 
not choose to rely upon his naval enterprise alone; but, conscious 
as he was of holding the main key of the land as well as water, he 
despatched, without delay, his trusty Sandoval with three hundred 
Spanish infantry and twenty horse to protect the town of Chalco 
and reduce the hostile fortifications in its vicinity. This duty he 
soon successfully performed. But the Aztecs renewed the assault 
on Chalco with a fleet of boats, and were again beaten off with the 
loss of a number of their nobles, who were delivered by the victors 
to Sandoval whom Cortéz had sent back to support the contested 
town as soon as the news of the fresh attack reached him. 


OPERATIONS AT CHALCO AND CUERNAVACA. 59 


By this time the brigantines were nearly completed, and the 
canal dug by which they were to be carried to the waters of the 
lake, for, at that time, the town of Tezcoco was distant from its 
margin. He dared not trust these precious materials for his future 
success beyond the shelter of his citadel in Tezcoco, since every 
effort had been already made by hostile and marauding parties to 
destroy them; and he was therefore obliged to undergo the trouble 
of digging this.canal, about half a league in length, in order to 
launch his vessels when the moment for final action arrived. 

Nor was his heart uncheered by fresh arrivals from the old 
world. Two hundred men, well provided with arms and ammuni- 
tion, and with upwards of seventy horses, — coming most probably 
from Hispaniola, —found their way from Vera Cruz to Tezcoco, 
and united themselves with the corps of Cortéz. 

In the meantime the Emperor again directed his arms against 
his recreant subjects of Chalco, which he seemed resolved to 
subdue and hold at all hazards, so as effectually to cut off the most 
important land approach to his capital. Envoys arrived in the 
Spanish camp with reports of the danger that menaced them, and 
earnest appeals for efficient support. This time, Cortéz resolved 
to lead the party destined for this service, and, on the 5th of April, 
set out with thirty horsemen, three hundred infantry and a large 
body of Tlascalans and Tezcocans, to succor a city whose neu- 
trality, at least, it was important, as we have already shown, 
should eventually be secured. He seems to have effected, by his 
personal influence in Chalco and its neighborhood, what his lieu- 
tenant Sandoval had been unable to do by arms, so that, he not 
only rendered a large number of loyal Aztecs passive, but even 
secured the co-operation of additional auxiliaries from among the 
Chalcans and the tribes that dwelt on the borders of their lake. 

Cortéz was not, however, content with this demonstration 
against his near neighbors, but, resolved, now that he was once 
more in the saddle, to cross the sterra that hemmed in the vale 
of Anahuac, on the south, and to descend its southern slopes on a 
visit to the warmer regions that basked at their feet. Accordingly 
he prosecuted his soutnern march through large bodies of harrass- 
ing skirmishers, who hung upon the rear and flanks of his troop, 
and annoyed it with arrows and missiles, which they hurled from 
the crags as his men thrided the narrow defiles of the mountains. 
Passing through Huaxtepec and Jauhtepec, he arrived on the ninth 
day of his march, before the strong town of Guauhnahuac, or 
Cuernavaca, as it is now known in the geography of Mexico. It 


60 XOCHIMILCO — RETURN TO TACUBA. 


was the capital of the Tlahuicas, and an important and wealthy 
tributary of the Aztecs. Here too he encountered hostile resist- 
ance which he quickly overcame. His name as a _ successful 
warrior had preceded him among these more effeminate races, and 
the trembling lords of the territory soon submitted to his mercy. 
Departing from Cuernavaca, Cortéz turned again northwards, and 
ascending the sierra in a new direction re-entered the valley of 
Anahuac or Mexico, by the main route which now penetrates the 
southern portion of its rim. From the summits of these moun- 
tains, where the cool air of the temperate clime sings through the 
limbs and tassels of hardy pines, Cortéz swooped down upon 
Xochimilco, or the ‘field of flowers,”? where he was again 
encountered by guerillas and more formidable squadrons from 
the Aztec capital which was but twelve miles distant. Here, 
again, after several turns in the tide of fortune, the Spaniards were 
triumphant and obtained a rich booty. From Xochimilco the little 
band and the auxiliaries advanced, among continual dangers, 
around the western margin of the lakes, and, skirting the feet of 
the mountains, attained, once more, the town of Tacuba. 


The conqueror had thus circled the valley, and penetrated the 
adjacent southern vale, in his two expeditions. Wherever he 
went, the strange weapons of his Spaniards, the singular appear- 
ance of his mounted men, and his uniform success, served to 
inspire the natives with a salutary dread of his mysterious power. 
He now knew perfectly the topography of the country,— for he 
was forced to be his own engineer as well as general. He had 
become acquainted with the state of the Aztec defences, as well as 
with the slender hold the central power of the empire retained over 
the tributary tribes, towns, and districts which had been so often 
vexed by taxation to support a voluptuous sovereign and avaricious 
aristocracy. He found the sentiment of patriotic union and loyalty 
but feeble among the various populations he visited. The ties of 
international league had every where been adroitly loosened by the 
conqueror, either through his eloquence or his weapons ; and, from 
all his careful investigations, both of character and country, he had 
reason to believe that the realm of Mexico was at length almost 
within his grasp. The capital was now encircled with.a cordon 
of disloyal cities. Every place of importance had been visited, 
conquered, subdued, or destroyed in its moral courage or natural 
allegiance. But Tacuba was too near the capital to justify him in 
trusting his jaded band within so dangerous a neighborhood. 


CORTEZ RETURNS TO TEZCOCO AND IS REINFORCED. 61 


Accordingly, he did not delay a day in that city, but, gathering his 
soldiers as soon as they were refreshed, he departed for Tezcoco 
by the northern journey around the lakes. His way was again 
beset with difficulties. The season of rain and storm in those lofty 
regions had just set in. The road was flooded, and the soldiers 
were forced to plough through mud in drenched garments. But 
as they approached their destination, Sandoval came forth to meet 
them, with companions who had freshly arrived from the West 
Indies ; and, besides, he bore the cheering news that the brigan- 
tines were ready to be launched for the last blow at the heart of 
the empire. 


CHAPTER. Vere 


JES he 


CORTEZ RETURNS—-CONSPIRACY AMONG HIS MEN DETECTED. — 
EXECUTION OF VILLAFANA—BRIGANTINES LAUNCHED. — XICO- 
TENCATL’S TREASON AND EXECUTION.—— DISPOSITION OF FORCES 
TO ATTACK THE CITY.—SIEGE AND ASSAULTS ON THE CITY.— 
FIGHT AND REVERSES OF THE SPANIARDS.—SACRIFICE OF CAP- 
TIVES — FLIGHT OF ALLIES.— CONTEST RENEWED — STARVA- 
TION. 


Tuer return of Cortéz to his camp, after all the toils of his 
arduous expedition, was not hailed with unanimous delight by 
those who had hitherto shared his dangers and successes, since 
the loss of the capital. There were persons in the small band 
of Spaniards, — especially among those who had been added from 
the troops of Narvaez,— who still brooded over the disaffection 
and mutinous feelings which had been manifested at Tlascala 
before the march to Tezcoco. They were men who eagerly 
flocked to the standard of the conqueror for plunder; whose 
hearts were incapable of appreciating the true spirit of glorious 
adventure in the subjugation of an empire, and who despised 
victories that were productive of nothing but fame. 

These discontented men conspired, about this period, under the 
lead of Antonio Villafafia, a common soldier; and it was the design 
of the recreant band to assassinate Sandoval, Olid and Alvarado, 
together with Cortéz, and other important men who were known 
to be deepest in the General’s councils or interests. After the 
death of these leaders,— with whose fall the enterprise would 
doubtless have perished, — a brother-in-law of Velasquez, by name 
Francisco Verdugo, who was altogether ignorant of the designs of 
the conspirators, was to be placed in command of the panic- 
stricken troop, which, it was supposed, would instantly unite 
under the new general. 

It was the project of these wretched dastards to assault and 
despatch the conqueror and his officers whilst engaged in opening 


EXECUTION OF VILLAFANA — BRIGANTINES LAUNCHED. 63 


despatches, which were to be suddenly presented, as if just arrived 
from Castile: But,a day before the consummation of the treach- 
ery, one of the party threw himself at the feet of Cortéz and 
betrayed the project, together with the fact, that, in the possession 
of Villafatia, would be found a paper containing the names of his 
associates in infamy. 

Cortéz immediately summoned the leaders whose lives were 
threatened, and, after a brief consultation, the party hastened to 
the quarters of Villafaiia accompanied by four officers. The arch 
conspirator was arrested, and the paper wrested from him as he 
attempted to swallow it. He was instantaneously tried by a 
military court,— and, after brief time for confession and _ shrift, 
was swung by the neck from the casement of his quarters. The 
prompt and striking sentence was executed before the army knew 
of the crime; and the scroll of names being destroyed by Cortéz, 
the memory of the meditated treachery was forever buried in 
oblivion. ‘The commander, however, knew and marked thé men 
whose participation had been so unexpectedly revealed to him; 
but he stifled all discontent by letting it be understood that the 
only persons who suffered for the shameful crime had made no 
confession! He could not spare men from his thin ranks even at 
the demand of justice; for even the felons who sought his life 
were wanted in the toils and battles of his great and final enter- 
prise. 


It was on the 28th of April, 1521, amid the solemn services of 
religion, and in the presence of the combined army of Spaniards 
and Indians, that the long cherished project of launching the 
brigantines was finally accomplished. They reached the lake 
safely through the canal which had been dug for them from the 
town of Tezcoco. 

The Spanish forces, designed to operate in this last attack, 
consisted of eighty-seven horse and eight hundred and eighteen 
infantry, of which one hundred and eighteen were arquebusiers 
and crossbowmen. ‘Three large iron field pieces and fifteen brazen 
falconets formed the ordnance. A plentiful supply of shot and 
balls, together with fifty thousand copper-headed arrows, composed 
the ammunition. ‘Three hundred men were sent on board the twelve 
_ vessels which were used in the enterprise, for unfortunately, one of 
the thirteen that were originally ordered to be built, proved useless 
upon trial. The navigation of these brigantines, each one of which 
carried a piece of heavy cannon, was, of course, not difficult, for 


64 XICOTENCATL’S TREASON AND EXECUTION. 


although the waters of the lake have evidently shrunken since the 
days of the conquest, it is not probable that it was more than 
three or four feet deeper than at present.!. The distance to be — 
traversed from Tezcoco to the capital was about twelve miles, and 
the subsequent service was to be rendered in the neighborhood of 
the causeways, and under the protection of the walls of the city. 

The Indian allies from Tlascala came up in force at the ap- 
pointed time. These fifty thousand well equipped men were led 
by Xicotencatl, who, as the expedition was about to set forth by 
land and water for the final attack, seems to have been seized 
with a sudden panic, and deserted his standard with a number 
of followers. There was no hope for conquest without the alliance 
and loyal support of the Tlascalans. The decision of Cortéz upon 
the occurrence of this dastardly act of a man in whose faith he had 
religiously confided, although he knew he was not very friendly to 
the Spaniards, was prompt and terribly severe. A chosen band 
was directed to follow the fugitive even to the walls of Tlascala. 
There, the deserter was arrested, brought back to Tezcoco, and 
hanged on a lofty gallows in the great square of that city. This 
man, says Prescott, ‘‘was the only Tlascalan who swerved from his 
loyalty to the Spaniards.” 


All being now prepared, Cortéz planned his attack. It will be 
recollected that the city of Mexico rose, like Venice, from the 
bosom of the placid waters, and that its communication with the 
main land was kept up by the great causeways which were described 
in the earlier portion of this narrative. The object of the con- 
queror, therefore, was to shut up the capital, and cut off all access 
to the country by an efficient blockade of the lake, with his brigan- 
tines, and of the land with his infantry and cavalry. Accordingly 
he distributed his forces into three bodies or separate camps. The 
first of these, under Pedro de Alvarado, consisting of thirty horse, 
one hundred and sixty-eight Spanish infantry, and twenty-five thou- 
sand Tlascalans, was to command the causeway of Tacuba. The 
second division, of equal magnitude, under Olid, was to be posted 
at Cojohuacan, so as to command the causeways that led eastwardly 
into the city. The third equal corps of the Spanish army was 
entrusted to Sandoval, but its Indian force was to be drawn from 
native allies at Chalco. Alvarado and Olid were to proceed 


1 The writer sounded the lake in the channel from Mexico to Tezcoco in 1842, 
and did not find more than 24 feet in the deepest path. The Indians, at 
present, wade over all parts of the lake. 


DISPOSITION OF FORCES TO ATTACK THE CITY. 65 


around the northern head of the lake of Tezcoco, whilst Sandoval, 
supported by Cortéz with the brigantines, passed around the 
southern portion of it, to complete the destruction of the town of 
Iztapalapan, which was deemed by the conqueror altogether too 
important a point to be left in the rear. In the latter part of May, 
1521, all these cavaliers got into their assigned military positions, 
and it is from this period that the commencement of the siege of 
Mexico is dated, although Alvarado had previously had some con- 
flicts with the people on the causeway that led to his head quarters 
in Tacuba, and had already destroyed the pipes that fed the water- 
tanks and fountains of the capital. 

At length Cortéz set sail with his flotilla in order to sustain 
Sandoval’s march to Iztapalapan. As he passed across the lake 
and under the shadow of the ‘‘rock of the Marquis,”’ he descried 
from his brigantines several hundred canoes of the Mexicans filled 
with soldiers and advancing rapidly over the calm lake. There 
was no wind to swell his sails or give him command of his vessels’ 
motion, and the conqueror was obliged to await the arrival of the 
canoes without making such disposition for action as was needful 
in the emergency. But as the Indian squadron approached, a 
breeze suddenly sprang up, and Cortéz, widening his line of 
battle, bore down upon the frail skiffs, overturning, crushing and 
sinking them by the first blow of his formidable prows, whilst he 
fired to the right and left amid the discomfitted flotilla. But few 
of these Indian boats returned to the canals of the city, and this 
signal victory made Cortéz, forever after, the undisputed master 
of the lake. 

The conqueror took up his head quarters at Xoloc, where the 
causeway of Cojohuacan met the great causeway of the south. 
The chief avenues to Mexico had been occupied for some time, as 
has been already related, but either through ignorance or singular 
neglect, there was the third great causeway, of Tepejacac, on the 
north, which still afforded the means of communication with the 
people of the surrounding country. This had been altogether 
neglected. Alvarado was immediately ordered to close this outlet, 
and Sandoval took up his position on the dyke. ‘Thus far the 
efforts of the Spaniards and auxiliaries had been confined to 
precautionary movements rather than to decisive assaults upon the 
capital. But it soon became evident that a city like Mexico might 
hold. out long against a blockade alone. Accordingly an attack 
was ordered by Cortéz to be made by the two commanders at the 
other military points nearest their quarters. The brigantines sailed 


3 


66 SIEGE AND ASSAULTS ON THE CITY. 


along the sides of the causeways, and aided by their enfilading 
fires, the advance of the squadrons on land. The infantry and 
cavalry advanced upon the great avenue that divided the town from 
north to south.’ Their heavy guns were brought up and soon 
mowed a path for the musketeers and crossbowmen. The flying 
enemy retreated towards the great square in the centre of the city, 
and were followed by the impetuous Spaniards and their Indian 
allies. The outer wall of the Great Temple, itself, was soon 
passed by the hot-blooded cavaliers, some of whom rushed up the 
stairs and circling corridors of the Teocalli, whence they pushed 
the priests over the sides of the pyramid and tore off the golden 
mask and jewels of the Aztec war-god. But the small band of 
invaders had, for a moment only, appalled the Mexicans, who 
rallied in numbers at this daring outrage, and sprang vindictively 
upon the sacrilegious assailants. ‘The Spaniards and their allies 
fled; but the panic with which they were seized deprived their 
retreat of all order or security. Cortéz, himself, was unable to 
restore discipline, when suddenly, a troop of Spanish horsemen 
dashed into the thick of the fight, and intimidating the Indians, by 
their superstitious fears of cavalry, they soon managed to gather 
and form the broken files of their Spanish and Indian. army, so 
that, soon after the hour of vespers, the combined forces drew 
off with their artillery and ammunition to the barrack at Xoloc. 
About this period, the inhabitants of Xochimilco and some tribes 
of rude but valiant Otomies gave in their adhesion to the Span- 
iards. The Prince of Tezcoco, too, despatched fifty thousand 
levies to the aid of Cortéz. Thus strengthened, another attack 
was made upon the city. Most of the injuries which had been 
done to the causeways in the first onslaught had been repaired, so 
that the gates of the capital, and finally the great square, were 
reached by the Spaniards with nearly as great difficulty as upon 
their former attempt. But this time the invaders advanced more 
cautiously into the heart of the city, where they fired and destroyed 
their ancient quarters in the old palace of Axayacatl and the 
edifices adjoming the royal palace on the other side of the square. 
These incursions into the capital were frequently repeated by 
Cortéz, nor were the Mexicans idle in their systematic plans to 
defeat the Spaniards. All communication with the country, by 
the causeways was permanently interrupted ; yet the foe stealthily, 
and in the night, managed to evade the vigilance of the twelve 
cruisers whose numbers were indeed insufficient to maintain a 
stringent naval blockade of so large a city as Mexico. But the 


FIGHT AND REVERSES OF THE SPANIARDS. 67 


success of Cortéz, in all his engagements by land and water, his 
victorious incursions into the very heart of the city, and the general 
odium which was cherished against the central power of the empire 
by all the tributary tribes and dependant provinces, combined, at 
this moment, to aid the efforts of the conqueror in cutting off sup- 
plies from the famishing capital. The great towns and small 
villages in the neighborhood threw off their allegiance, and the 
camps of the Spanish leaders thronged with one hundred and fifty 
thousand auxiliaries selected from among the recreants. The 
Spaniards were amply supplied with food from these friendly 
towns, and never experienced the sufferings from famine that were 
soon to overtake the beleagured capital. 


At length the day was fixed for a general assault upon the city 
by the two divisions under Alvarado and Cortéz. As usual, the 
battle was preceded by the celebration of mass, and the army then 
advanced in three divisions up the most important streets. They 
entered the town, cast down the barricades which had been erected 
to impede their progress, and, with remarkable ease, penetrated 
even to the neighborhood of the market-place. But the very 
facility of their advance alarmed the cautious mind of Cortéz, and 
induced him to believe that this slack resistance was but designed 
to seduce him farther and farther within the city walls until he 
found himself beyond the reach of succor or retreat. This made 
him pause. His men, more eager for victory and plunder than 
anxious to secure themselves by filling up the canals and clearing 
the streets of their impediments, had rushed madly on without 
taking proper precaution to protect their rear, if the enemy became 
too hot in front. Suddenly the horn of Guatemozin was heard 
from a neighboring Teocalli, and the flying Indians, at the sacred 
and warning sound, turned upon the Spaniards with all the 
mingled feeling of reinspired revenge and religion. For a while 
the utmost disorder prevailed in the ranks of the invaders, Span- 
iards, Tlascalans, Tezcocans and Otomies, were mixed in a com- 
mon crowd of combatants. From the tops of houses; from con- 
verging streets; from the edges of canals,— crowds of Aztecs 
swarmed and poured their vollies of javelins, arrows and stones. 
Many were driven into the lake. Cortéz himself had nigh fallen a 
victim in the dreadful melée, and was rescued with difficulty. 
Meanwhile, Alvarado and Sandoval had penetrated the city from 
the western causeway, and aided in stemming the onslaught of 
the Aztecs. For a while the combined forces served to check the 


68 SACRIFICE OF CAPTIVES——FLIGHT OF ALLIES. 


boiling tide of battle sufficiently to enable those who were most 
sorely pressed to be gradually withdrawn, yet not until sixty-two 
Spaniards and a multitude of allies, besides many killed and 
wounded, had fallen captives and victims in the hands of their 
implacable enemies. 

It was yet day when the broken band withdrew from the city, 
and returned to the camps either on the first slopes of the hills, or 
at the terminations of the causeways. But sad, mdeed, was the 
spectacle that presented itself to their eyes, as they gazed towards 
the city, through the clear atmosphere of those elevated regions, 
when they heard the drum sound from the top of the Great Teo- 
calli. It was the dread signal of sacrifice. The wretched Span- 
iards, who had been captured in the fight, were, one after another, 
stretched on the stone in front of the hideous idols, and their reek- 
ing hearts, torn from their bosoms, thrown as propitiating morsels 
into the flames before the deities. The mutilated remains of the 
captives were then flung down the steep sides of the pyramid, to 
glut the crowds at its base with a ‘cannibal repast.” 


Whilst these repulses and dreadful misfortunes served to dispirit 
the Spaniards and elate the Aztecs, they were not without their 
signally bad effects upon the auxiliaries. Messages were sent to 
these insurgent bodies by the Emperor. He conjured them to 
return to their allegiance. He showed them how bravely their out- 
raged gods had been revenged. He spoke of the reverses that 
had befallen the white men in both their invasions, and warned 
them that a parricidal war like this could ‘‘come to no good for 
the people of Anahuac.”? Otomies, Cholulans, Tepeacans, Tezco- 
cans, and even the loyal Tlascalans, the hereditary enemies of the 
Montezumas and Guatemozins, stole off secretly under the cover 
of night. There were of course exceptions in this inglorious 
desertion; but it seems that perhaps the majority of the tribes 
departed for their homes with the belief that the tide had turned 
against the Spanish conqueror and that it was best to escape 
before it was too late, the scandal or danger of open treason 
against their lawful Emperor. But, amid all these disasters, the 
noble heart of Cortéz remained firm and true to his purpose. He 
placed his artillery again in position upon the causeways, and, 
never wasting his ammunition, contrived to husband it carefully 
until the assaulting Aztecs swarmed in such numbers on the 
dykes that his discharges mowed them down like grass as 
they advanced to attack him. It was a gloomy time, requiring 


CONTEST RENEWED— STARVATION. 69 


vigilance by day and by night—by land and by water. The 
brigantines were still secure. They swept the lake continually 
and cut off supplies designed for the capital. The Spaniards 
hermetically sealed the causeways with their cannon, and thus, at 
length, was the city that would not yield to storm given over to 
starvation. 


CHAPTER IX. 
1521. 


. 


AZTEC PREDICTION —IT IS NOT VERIFIED. — CORTEZ REINFORCED 
BY FRESH ARRIVALS. —FAMINE IN THE CITY.—CORTEZ LEVELS 
THE CITY TO ITS FOUNDATION. — CONDITION OF THE CAPITAL— 
ATTACK RENEWED. — CAPTURE OF GUATEMOZIN — SURRENDER 
OF THE CITY. — FRIGHTFUL CONDITION OF THE CITY. 


Tue desertion of numerous allies, which we have noticed in the 
last chapter, was not alone prompted by the judgment of the flying 
Indians, but was stimulated in a great degree by the prophecy of 
the Aztec priests, that, within eight days from the period of predic- 
tion, the beleagured city would be delivered from the Spaniards. 
But the sun rose on the ninth over the inexorable foes still in posi- 
tion on the causeways and on the lake. The news was soon sent 
by the allies who had remained faithful, to those who had fled, and 
the deficient ranks were quickly restored by the numbers who 
flocked back to the Spanish standard as soon as they were relieved 
from superstitious fear. 

About this time, moreover, a vessel that had been destined for 
Ponce de Leon, in his romantic quest of Florida, put into Vera 
Cruz with ammunition and military stores, which were soon 
forwarded to the valley. Thus strengthened by his renerved 
Indian auxiliagjes, and reinforced with Spanish powder and guns, 
Cortéz was speedily again in train to assail the capital; for he was 
not content to be idle except when the most serious disasters 
forced him to endure the slow and murderous process of subduing ~ 
the city by famine. There may, perhaps, be something noble and 
chivalrous in this feeling of the Castilian hero. His heart revolted 
at the sight of misery inflicted without a chance of escape, and it | 
delighted in those conflicts which matched man with man, and 
gave the ultimate victory to valor and not to stratagem. 


CORTEZ LEVELS THE CITY TO ITS FOUNDATION. 71 


Accordingly the conqueror resolved again to commence active 
hostilities. But, this time, he designed to permit no hazards of the 
moment, and no personal carelessness of his officers to obstruct his 
entry or egress from the city. As he advanced the town was to be 
demolished; the canals filled up; the breaches in the dykes per- 
fectly repaired; and, as he moved onwards to the north and west, he 
determined that his path should be over a level and solid surface 
on which he might encounter none of the dangers that had hitherto 
proved so disastrous. ‘The necessity of this course will be evident 
when it is recollected that all the houses were terraced with flat 
roofs and protecting parapets, which sheltered the assailants, 
whilst the innumerable canals bisecting the streets served as so 
many pit-falls for cavalry, footmen and Indians, when they became 
confused in the hurry of a promiscuous onset or retreat. 


Meanwhile the Aztecs within the city suffered the pangs of 
famine. The stores that had been gathered for the siege were 
gone. Human bodies, roots, rats, reptiles, served for a season, 
to assuage the famished stomachs of the starving crowds ;— when 
suddenly, Cortéz despatched three Aztec nobles to Guatemozin, 
who were instructed to praise his defence, to assure him he had 
saved the honor of himself and soldiery, and to point out the utter 
uselessness of longer delay in submitting to inevitable fate. The 
message of the conqueror was weighed by the court with more 
favor than by the proud and spirited Emperor, whose patriotic 
bosom burned at the disgraceful proposal of surrender. The 
priests turned the tide against the white men; and, after two days, 
the answer to the summons came in a warlike sortie from the city 
which well nigh swept the Spanish defenders from the dykes. 
But cannon and musketry were too strong for mere numbers. 
The vessels poured in their volumes of iron hail on the flanks, and 
the last dread effort of defensive despair expired before the un- 
flinching firmness of the Castilian squadrons. At length, Cortéz 
believed that the moment for final action had arrived. He gave 
orders for the advance of the several corps of the army simulta- 
neously by their several causeways; and although it pained him 
greatly to destroy a capital which he deemed ‘‘the gem of the 
world,” yet he put into execution his resolve to raze the city to its 
foundation unless it surrendered at discretion. The number of 
laborers was increased daily by the hosts that flocked like vultures 
to the carcase of an expiring victim. The palaces, temples and 
dwellings were plundered, thrown down, and cast into the canals. 


72 CONDITION OF THE CAPITAL—ATTACK RENEWED. 


The water was entirely excluded from the city. On all sides there 

was fast and level land. But the Mexicans were not mere idle, 
contemptible spectators of their imperial city’s ruin. Day after 
day squadrons sallied from the remains of the capital, and engaged 
the harrassed invaders. Yet the indomitable constancy of the 
Spaniards was not to be resisted. Cortéz and Alvarado had toiled 
onward towards each other, from opposite sides, till they met. 
The palace of Guatemozin fell and was burned. The district of 
Tlatelolco, in the north of the city, was reached, and the great 
market-place secured. One of the great Teocallis, in this quarter, 
was stormed, its sanctuaries burned, and the standard of Castile 
placed on its summit. Havoc, death, ruin, starvation, despair, 
hatred, were every where manifest. Every hour added to the 
misery of the numerous and retreating Aztecs who were pent up, 
as the besieging circle narrowed and narrowed by its advances. 
Women remained three days and nights up to their necks in water 
among the reeds. Hundreds died daily. Others became insane 
from famine and thirst. 

The conqueror hoped, for several days, that this disastrous con- 
dition of the people would have induced the Emperor to come to 
terms ; but, failing in this, he resolved upon a general assault. 
Before he resorted to this dreadful alternative, which his chivalrous 
heart taught him could result only in the slaughter of men so fam- 
ished, dispirited and broken, he once more sought an interview 
with the Emperor. This was granted; but, at the appointed 
time, Guatemozin did not appear. Again the appeal was renewed, 
and, again, was Cortéz disappointed in the arrival of the sovereign. 
Nothing, then, remained for him but an assault, and, as may 
readily be imagined, the carnage in this combined attack of Span- 
iards and confederate Indians was indescribably horrible. The 
long endurance of the Aztecs; their prolonged resistance and 
cruelty to the Spaniards; the dreadful sacrifice of the captives 
during the entire period of the siege; the memory of the first ex- 
pulsion, and the speedy hope of golden rewards, nerved the arms 
and hearts of these ferocious men, and led them on, in the work of 
revenge and conquest, until the sun sunk and night descended on 
the tragic scene. 

On the 13th of August, 1521, the last appeal was made by 
Cortéz to the Emperor for a surrender of his capital. After the 
bloody scenes of the preceding day, and the increased misery of 
the last night, it was not to be imagined that even insane patriot- 
ism or savage madness could induce the sovereign to refrain from 


CAPTURE OF GUATEMOZIN — SURRENDER OF THE CITY. 13 


saving, at least, the unfortunate non-combatants who still were 
loyal to his throne and person. But the judgment of the con- 
queror was wrong. ‘‘Guatemozin would die where he was!” 
was the reply of the royal stoic. 


Again the infuriate troops were let loose, and again were the 
scenes of the day before re-enacted on the bloody theatre. Many 
escaped in boats by the lake; but the brave or reckless Guate- 
mozin, who seems, at the last moment, to have changed his mind 
as to perishing, was taken prisoner and brought, with his family, 
into the presence of Cortéz. As soon as his noble figure and dig- 
nified face were seen on the azotea or terraced roof, beside the 
conqueror, the battle ceased. The Indians beheld their monarch 
captive! And she who had witnessed the beginning of these 
adventures, — who had followed the fortunes of the General through 
all their vicissitudes —the gentle but brave Indian girl — Mari- 
ana — stood by the intrepid Cortéz to act as his interpreter in this 
last scene of the splendid and eventful drama. 

’ 

It was on the following day that the Mexicans who still sur- 
vived the slaughter and famine, evacuated the city. It was a 
desert — but a desert covered with dead. The men who rushed 
in to plunder,— plundered as if robbing graves. Between one 
and two hundred thousand people perished during the three 
months’ siege, and their festering bodies tainted the air. The booty, 
though considerable, was far beneath the expectations of the con- 
querors ; yet there was doubtless enough to reward amply the stout 
men at arms who had achieved a victory unparalleled in the annals 
of modern warfare. 

‘¢What I am going to say is truth, and I swear, and say Amen 
to it!’? exclaims Bernal Diaz del Castillo, in his quaint style— 
‘¢T have read of the destruction of Jerusalem, but I cannot con- 
ceive that the mortality there exceeded that of Mexico; for all the 
people from the distant provinces, which belonged to this empire, 
had concentrated themselves here, where they mostly died. The 
streets, and squares, and houses, and the courts of the Tlatelolco 
were covered with dead bodies; we could not step without 
treading on them; the lake and canals were filled with them, and 
the stench was intolerable. ; 

‘¢ When all those who had been able, quitted the city, we went 
to examine it, which was as I have described; and some poor 
creatures were crawling about in different stages of the most offen- 

10 


74. FRIGHTFUL CONDITION OF THE CITY. 


sive disorders, the consequences of famine and improper food. 
There was no water; the ground had been torn up and the roots 
onawed. ‘The very trees were stripped of their bark; yet, not- 
withstanding they usually devoured their prisoners, no instance 
occurred when, amidst all the famine and starvation of this siege, 
they preyed upon each other.! The remnant of the population 
went, at the request of the conquered Guatemozin, to the neigh- 
boring villages, until the town could be purified and the dead 
removed.” 


1This fact, as stated by Bernal Diaz, is doubted bysome other writers, and 
seems, unfortunately, not fully sustained by authority. 


CHAPTER’X. 


1521. 


DUTY OF A HISTORIAN. —MOTIVES OF THE CONQUEST.— CHAR- 
ACTER AND DEEDS OF CORTEZ.—MATERIALS OF THE CON- 
QUEST. — ADVENTURERS — PRIESTS — INDIAN ALLIES. — HIS- 
TORICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONQUEST. 


Ir is perhaps one of the most difficult duties of a historian, who 
desires to present a faithful picture of a remote age, to place himself 
in such a position as to draw the moral from his story with justice 
to the people and the deeds he has described. He is obliged to 
forget, not only his individuality and all the associations or preju- 
dices with which he has grown up surrounded, but he must, in 
fact, endeavor to make himself a man and an actor in the age of 
which he writes. He must sympathize justly, but impartially, with 
the past, and estimate the motives of his fellow beings in the epoch 
he describes. He must measure his heroes, not by the standard of 
advanced Christian civilization under which he has been educated, 
but by the scale of enlightened opinion which was then acknow- 
ledged by the most respectable and intellectual classes of society. 

When we approach the Conquest of Mexico with these impartial 
feelings, we are induced to pass lighter judgments on the prominent 
men of that wonderful enterprise. The love of adventure or glory, 
the passion of avarice, and the zeal of religion, —all of which 
mingled their threads with the meshes of this Indian web, were, 
unquestionably, the predominant motives that led the conquerors 
to Mexico. In some of them, a single one of these impulses was 
sufficient to set the bold adventurer in motion ;—1in others, perhaps, 
they were all combined. The necessary rapidity of our narra- 
tive has confined us more to the detail of prominent incidents than 
we would have desired had it been our task to disclose the won- 
drous tale of the conquest alone; but it would be wrong, even in 


76 CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF CORTEZ. 


the briefest summary of the enterprise, to pass from the topic 
without awarding to the moving spirit of the romantic drama the 
fair estimate which his character and deeds demand. 


We have ever regarded Hernando Cortéz as the great con- 
troling spirit and embodiment of the conquest, regardless of 
the brilliant and able men who were grouped around him, 
all of whom, tempered and regulated by his genius, moved the 
military machine, step by step, and act by act, until the capital fell 
before the united armies of discontented Indians and invading 
Spaniards. It was in the mind of this remarkable personage that 
every scheme appears to have originated and ripened. This is the 
report of the most authentic contemporaries. He took counsel, it 
is true, of his captains, and heard the reports of Sandoval, Olid, 
and Alvarado; but whenever a great enterprise, in all the wonder- 
ful and varied combinations of this adventure, was to be carried 
into successful execution, it was Cortéz himself who planned it, 
placed himself at its head, and fought in its midst. The rash 
youth whom we saw either idling over his tasks at school, or a 
reckless stripling as he advanced in life, seems to have mellowed 
suddenly into greatness under the glow of Indian suns which 
would have emasculated a character of less rude or nervous 
strength. As soon as a project, worthy of the real power of his 
genius, presented itself to his mind and opened to his grasp, he 
became a sobered, steadfast, serious, discreet man. He was at 
once isolated by his superiority, and contrived to retain, by his 
wisdom in command, the superiority which was so perfectly mani- 
fested by this isolation. This alone, was no trifling task. His 
natural adroitness not only taught him quickly the value of every 
man in his command, but also rendered keener the tact by which 
he strove to use those men when their talents, for good or evil, 
were once completely ascertained. . There were jealousies of 
Cortéz, but no rivalries. Men from the ranks conspired to dis- 
place him, but no leader ever ventured, or perhaps even conceived 
the idea, whilst under his orders, of superceding the hero of the 
Mexican conquest. The skill with which he won the loyal heart 
of that clever Indian girl—his mistress and companion through 
all the warfare, — discloses to us his power of attaching a sex 
which is always quickest to detect merit and readiest to discard 
conceit. We speak now of Cortéz during that period of his 
career when he was essentially the soul of the conquest, and in 
which the stern demands of war upon his intellect and heart, did 


MATERIALS OF THE CONQUEST. 7) 


not allow him to sleep for a moment on his post, or to tamper 
with the elements upon which he relied for success. In all this 
time he made but few mistakes. The loss of the capital during 
the first visit is not to be attributed to him. The stain of that 
calamity must rest forever upon the escutcheon of Alvarado, 
for the irreparable harm was already done when Cortéz returned 
from the subjugation of Narvaez. 

Nor is it alone as a soldier, at this time, that we are called on 
to appreciate the talents of our hero. Whilst he planned, fought, 
travelled, retreated, and diplomatised, he kept an accurate account 
of the adventures of his troop; and, in his celebrated letters to 
the Emperor, he has presented us a series of military memoirs, 
which, after three hundred years, furnish, in reality, the best, but 
least pretending, narrative of the conquest. Other contemporaries, 
looking upon the scenes from a variety of points, may serve to add 
interesting details and more copious illustration to the story; but 
they support without diminishing the. value and truth of the 
despatches of Cortéz. 

The conqueror, in truth, was one of those men whose minds 
seem to reach results intuitively. Education often ripens genius, 
as the genial sun and air mature the fruits of the earth which 
would languish without them. But we sometimes find individuals 
whose dealings on earth are to be chiefly in energetic and constant 
action with their fellow creatures, and who are gifted with a finer 
tact which enables them to penetrate the hearts of all they 
approach, and by this skilful detection of character are empowered 
to mould them to their purposes. There are, it is true, many 
subordinate qualities, besides the mere perceptive faculties, that 
are needful in such a person. He must possess self-control and dis- 
crimination in a remarkable degree. His courage and self-reliance 
must be unquestionable. He must be able to win by gentleness 
as well as to control by command or to rule by stratagem; for 
there are persons whom neither kindness, reason nor authority can 
lead, but who are nevertheless too important to be disregarded in 
such an enterprise as that of the conquest of Mexico. 

Nor is our admiration of the characteristics we have endeavored 
to sketch, diminished when we examine the elements of the ori- 
ginal army that flocked to the standard of Cortéz. The Spanish 
court and camps,—the Spanish towns and sea-ports,— had sent 
forth a motley band to the islands. The sedate and worthier por- 
tions of Castilian society were not wooed abroad by the alluring 
accounts of the New World and its prolific wealth. They did 


718 ADVENTURERS — PRIESTS — INDIAN ALLIES. 


not choose to leave hereditary homes and comfortable emoluments 
which made those homes the permanent abodes of contentment if 
not of luxury. But there were others in the dense crowds of 
Spain whose habits, disposition and education, fostered in them all 
the love of ease and elegance, without bestowing the means 
of gratifying thew desires. These men regarded the New 
World as a short and easy road to opulence and distinction. 
There were others too, whose reckless or dissipated habits had 
wasted their fortunes and blasted their names in their native 
towns, and who could not bear to look upon the scenes of their 
youth, or the companions of their more fortunate days, whilst 
poverty and disgrace deprived them of the rights of free and equal 
social intercourse. These were the poor and proud ;—the noisy 
and the riotous;—the soldier, half bandit, half warrior ;— the 
sailor, half mutineer, half pirate; — the zealot whose bigotry mag- 
nified the dangers of Indian life into the glory of martyrdom; and 
the avaricious man who dreamed that the very sands of the Indian 
Isles were strewn with gems and gold. Among all-this mass of 
wayward lust and ambition, there were some lofty spirits whose 
love of glory, whose passionate devotion to adventure, and whose 
genuine anxiety to spread the true word of God among the infidels, 
sanctified and adorned the enterprise, whilst their personal efforts 
and influence were continually directed towards the noble purpose 
of redeeming it from cruelty. These men recollected that pos- 
terity would set its seal upon their deeds, whilst many of them 
acted from a higher and purer Christian motive, devoid of all 
that narrow selfishness with which others kept their eyes fixed on 
the present and the future for the popular opinion that was to dis- 
grace or dignify them on the pages of history. 


Such were the Spanish materials of the armies with which 
Cortéz invaded Mexico; and yet, even with all the masterly genius 
he possessed to mould and lead such discordant elements, what 
could he have substantially effected, against the Aztec Empire, 
with his handful of men,—armed, mounted and equipped as they 
were, — without his Indian allies? These he had to conquer, to 
win, to control, to bind to him, forever, with the chains of an in- 
destructible loyalty. He did not even know their language, but 
relied on the double interpretation of an Indian girl and a Spanish 
soldier. Nor is it less remarkable that he not only gained these 
allies, but preserved their fealty, not in success alone, but under 
‘ the most disheartening disaster, when it was really their interest to 


— 


HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONQUEST. 19 


destroy rather than to sustain him, and when not only their alle- 
giance but their religion invoked a dreadful vengeance on the sac- 
religious hands that despoiled their temples, overthrew their Gods, 
and made a jest of their most sacred rites. It was, indeed, not 
only a victory over the judgments, but over the superstitions, of 
an excitable, ardent and perhaps unreflective nation ; and, in what- 
ever aspect we regard the man who effected it solely by the 
omnipotence of his will, we are more and more forced to admire 
the majesty of his genius and the fortune or providence that made 
him a chosen and conspicuous instrument in the development of 
our continent. 


The conquest of Mexico,—-in its relation to the rest of the 
world,— has a double aspect, worthy of examination. The sub- 
sequent history and condition of the country, which we design to 
treat in the following pages, will develope one of these topics ;— 
the condition of the country, at the period of the conquest, will 
disclose another, whilst it palliates, if it does not altogether 
apologize for the cruelties and apparent rapine by which the 
subjugation of the empire was effected. 


? 


CHAPTER XI. 
1521-— 1522. 


DISCONTENT AT NOT FINDING GOLD—TORTURE OF GUATEMOZIN.— 
RESULTS OF THE FALL OF THE CAPITAL.—MISSION FROM 
MICHOACAN.—REBUILDING OF THE CAPITAL.—LETTERS TO 
THE KING.—INTRIGUES AGAINST CORTEZ FONSECA—NAR- 
VAEZ—TAPIA.—CHARLES V. PROTECTS CORTEZ AND CONFIRMS 
HIS ACTS. 


Tue capital had no sooner fallen and the ruins been searched 
in vain for the abundant treasures which the conquerors imagined 
were hoarded by the Aztecs, than murmurs of discontent broke 
forth in the Spanish camp against Cortéz for his supposed conceal- 
ment of the plunder. There was a mingled sentiment of distrust 
both of the conqueror and Guatemozin; and, at last, the queru- 
lousness and taunts rose to such an offensive height, that it was 
resolved to apply the torture to the dethroned prince in order to 
wrest from him the secret hiding place of his ancestral wealth. 
We blush to record that Cortéz consented to this iniquity, but it 
was probably owing to an avaricious and mutinous spirit in his 
ranks which he was unable at the moment to control. The same 
Indian stoicism that characterised the unfortunate prince during 
the war, still nerved him in his hours of abject disaster. He bore 
the pangs without quivering or complaint and without revealing 
any thing that could gratify the Spanish lust of gold, save that 
vast quantities of the precious metal had been thrown into the 
lake, — from which but little was ultimately recovered even by the 
most expert divers. 


The news of the fall of Mexico was soon spread from sea to Sea, 
and couriers were despatched by distant tribes and princes to 
ascertain the truth of the prodigious disaster. The independent 
kingdom of Michoacan, lying between the vale of Anahuac or 
Mexico and the Pacific, was one of the first to send its envoys, 


REBUILDING OF THE CAPITAL—LETTERS TO THE KING. 81 


and finally even its king, to the capital;—-and two small detach- 
ments of Spaniards returned with the new visiters, penetrating 
their country and passing with them even to the waters of the 
western ocean itself, on whose shores they planted the cross in ’ 
token of rightful possession. They returned by the northern dis- 
tricts, and brought with them the first specimens of gold and pearls 
from the region now known as California. 


It was not long, however, before Cortéz resolved to make his 
conquest available by the re-construction of the capital that he had 
been forced reluctantly to mutilate and partly level during the 
siege. The ancient city was nearly in ruins. The massive relics 
of idolatry, and the huge stones of which the chief palaces had 
been constructed, were cast into the canals. The desolation was 
complete on the site of the ancient imperial residence. And the 
Indians, who had served in the work of dilapidation, were even 
compelled by their Spanish leader and his task masters to be the 
principal laborers in the toil of building up a city which should 
surpass in splendor the ancient pride of Anahuac. 

Meanwhile the sagacious mind of Cortéz was not only busy 
with the present duties and occupations of his men in Mexico, but 
began to dwell,—now that the intense excitement of active war 
was over,—upon the condition of his relations with the Spanish 
Court and the government in the islands. He despatched to 
Castile, letters, presents, and the “‘royal fifth,’’? together with an 
enormous emerald whose base was as broad as the palm of his 
hand. With the General’s missives, went a letter from his army, 
commending the heroic leader, and beseeching its royal master to 
confirm Cortéz in his authority and to ratify all his proceedings. 
Quinones and Avila, the two envoys, sailed for home; but one of 
them, lucklessly, perished in a brawl at the Azores, whilst Avila, 
who resumed the voyage to Spain, after the loss of his companion, 
was taken by a French privateer, who bore the spoils of the 
Mexicans to the Court of Francis the First. The letters and de- 
spatches of Cortéz and his army, however, were saved, and Avila, 
privately and safely forwarded them to the Spanish sovereign. 

At the Court of Charles the Fifth there were, of course, numer- 
ous intrigues against the successful conqueror. The hatred of 
Velasquez had not been suffered to slumber in the breast of that 
disappointed governor, and Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, who was 
chief of the colonial department, and doubtless adroitly plied and 


stimulated by Velasquez, managed to obtain from the churchman, 
1] 


82 INTRIGUES AGAINST CORTEZ —FONSECA—NARVAEZ—TAPIA. 


Adrian, who was Regent whilst the Emperor resided in Germany, — 


an order for the seizure of Cortéz and the sequestration of his 
property until the will of the court should be finally made known. 

But, the avaricious Velasquez, the vindictive Fonseca, and the 
Veedor Cristoval de Tapia, whom they employed to execute so 
delicate and dangerous a commission against a man who at that 
moment, was surrounded by faithful soldiers and whose troops had 
been augmented by recent arrivals at Vera Cruz,—reasoned with 
but little judgment when they planned their unjust and ungrateful 
measures against Cortéz. ‘The commissioner, himself, seems to 
have soon arrived at the same conclusion, for, scarcely had he 
landed, before the danger of the enterprise and the gold of the 
conquerer, persuaded him prudently to decline penetrating into the 
heart of the country as the bearer of so ungrateful a reply to the 
wishes of a hero whose genius and sword had given an empire, 
and almost a world, to Spain. 


Thus, at last, was Cortéz, for a time, freed from the active hos- 
tility of the Spanish Court, whilst he retained his authority over 
his conquest merely by military right and power of forcible occu- 
pation. But he did not remain idly contented with what he had 
already done. His restless heart craved to compass the whole 
continent, and to discover, visit, explore, whatever lay within the 
reach of his small forces and of all who chose to swell them. He 
continually pressed his Indian visiters for information concerning 
the empire of the Montezumas and the adjacent territories of inde- 
pendent kings or tributaries. Wherever discontent lifted its head, 
or rebellious manifestations were made, he despatched sufficient 
forces to whip the mutineers into contrite submission. The new 
capital progressed apace, and stately edifices rose on the solid land 
which his soldiers had formed out of the fragments of ancient 
Mexico. 


Whilst thus engaged in his newly-acquired domain, Narvaez, 


his old enemy, and Tapia, his more recent foe, had reached the 
Spanish Court, where, aided by Fonseca, they once more be- 
stirred themselves in the foul labor of blasting the fame of Cortéz, 
and wresting from his grasp the splendid fruits of his valor. 


Luckily, however, the Emperor returned, about this period, from. 


eastern Europe, and, from this moment the tide of intrigue seems 
to have been stayed if not altogether turned. Reviled as he had 
hitherto been in the purlieus of the court, Cortéz was not without 
staunch kinsmen and warm friends who stood up valiantly in his 


CHARLES V. PROTECTS CORTEZ AND CONFIRMS HIS ACTS. ork 


behalf, both before councils and king. His father, Don Martin, 
and his friend, the Duke of Bejar, had been prominent among 
_ many in espousing the cause of the absent hero, even before the 
sovereign’s return;—and now, the monarch, whose heart was not 
indeed ungrateful for the effectual service rendered his throne by 
the conqueror, and whose mind probably saw not only the justice 
but the policy of preserving, unalienated, the fidelity and services 
of so remarkable a personage,—soon determined to look leniently 
upon all that was really censurable in the early deeds of Cortéz. 
Whilst Charles confirmed his acts in their full extent, he moreover 
constituted him “‘ Governor, Captain General and Chief Justice of 
New Spain, with power to appoint to all offices, civil and military, 
and to order any person to leave the country whose residence 
there might be deemed prejudicial to the crown.” 

On the 15th of October, 1522, this righteous commission was 
signed, by Charles V., at Valladolid. A liberal salary was as- 
signed the Captain General; his leading officers were crowned 
with honors and emoluments, and the troops were promised liberal 
grants of land. Thus, the wisdom of the king, and of the most 
respectable Spanish nobility, finally crushed the mean, jealous, 
or avaricious spirits who had striven to leave their slimy traces on 
the fame of the conqueror; whilst the Emperor, himself, with his 
own hand, acknowledged the services of the troops and _ their 
leader, in a letter to the Spanish army in Mexico. 

Among the men who felt severely the censure implied by this 
just and wise conduct of Charles V., was the ascetic Bishop of 
Burgos, Fonseca, whose baleful influence had fallen alike upon 
the discoveries of Columbus, and the conquests of Cortéz. His 
bigoted and narrow soul,—schooled in forms, and trained by early 
discipline, into a querulousness which could neither tolerate any- 
thing that did not accord with his rules or originate under his 
orders, — was unable to comprehend the splendid glory of the 
enterprises of these two heroic chieftains. Had it been his 
generous policy to foster them, history would have selected this 
son of the church as the guardian angel over the cradle of the New 
World; but he chose to be the shadow rather than the shining 
light of his era, and, whether from age or chagrin, he died in the 
year after this kingly rebuff from a prince whose councils he had 
long and unwisely served. 


CHAPTER XII. 
1522 — 1547. 


CORTEZ COMMISSIONED BY THE EMPEROR. — VELASQUEZ — HIS 
DEATH. — MEXICO REBUILT. — IMMIGRATION — REPARTIMIEN- 
TOS OF INDIANS. — HONDURAS — GUATEMOZIN — MARIANA. — 
CORTEZ ACCUSED— ORDERED TO SPAIN FOR TRIAL. — HIS RE- 
CEPTION, HONORS AND TITLES—-HE MARRIES — HIS RETURN 
TO MEXICO—RESIDES AT TEZCOCO. — EXPEDITIONS OF CORTEZ 
— CALIFORNIA — QUIVARA. — RETURNS TO SPAIN — DEATH — 
WHERE ARE HIS BONES? 


THE royal commission, of which we have spoken in the last 
chapter, was speedily borne to New Spain, where it was joyfully 
received by all who had participated in the conquest or joined 
the original forces since that event. Men not only recognized the 
justice of the act, but they felt that if the harvest was rightfully due 
to him who had planted the seed, it was also most probable that 
no one could be found in Spain or the Islands more capable than 
Cortéz of consolidating the new empire. Velasquez, the darling 
object of whose latter years had been to circumvent, entrap or foil 
the conqueror, was sadly stricken by the defeat of his machinations. 
The reckless but capable soldier, whom he designed to mould into 
the pliant tool of his avarice and glory, had suddenly become his 
master. Wealth, renown, and even royal gratitude, crowned his 
labors ; and the disobedience, the errors, and the flagrant wrongs 
he was charged with whilst subject to gubernatorial authority, 
were passed by in silence or forgotten in the acclamation 
that sounded his praise throughout Spain and Europe. Even 
Fonseca, — the chief of the council, — had been unable to thwart 
this darling of genius and good fortune. Velasquez, himself, was 
nothing. The great error of his life had been in breaking with 
Cortéz before he sailed for Mexico. He was straitened in fortune, 
foiled in ambition, mocked by the men whose career of dangerous 
adventure he had personally failed to share; and, at last, disgusted 
with the time and its men, he retired to brood over his melancholy 
reverses until death soon relieved him of his earthly jealousies and 
annoyances. | 


IMMIGRATION— REPARTIMIENTOS OF INDIANS. 85 


Four years had not entirely elapsed since the fall of Mexico, 
when a new and splendid city rose from its ruins and attracted the 
eager Spaniards, of all classes, from the old world and the islands. 
Cortéz designed this to be the continental nucleus of population. 
Situated on the central plateau of the realm, midway between the 
two seas, in a genial climate whose heat never scorched and whose 
cold never froze, it was, indeed, an alluring region to which 
men of all temperaments might resort with safety. Strongholds, 
churches, palaces, were erected on the sites of the royal residences 
of the Aztecs and their blood-stained Teocallis. Strangers were 
next invited to the new capital, and, in a few years, the Spanish 
quarter contained two thousand families, while the Indian district 
of Tlatelolco, numbered not less than thirty thousand inhabitants. 
The city soon assumed the air and bustle of a great mart. Trades- 
men, craftsmen and merchants, thronged its streets and remaining 
canals. 

Cortéz was not less anxious to establish, in the interior of the 
old Aztec empire, towns or points of rendezvous, which in the 
course of time, would grow up into important cities. These were 
placed with a view to the future wants of travel and trade in New 
Spain. Liberal grants of land were made to settlers who were 
compelled to provide themselves with wives under penalty of 
forfeiture within eighteen months. Celibacy was too great a 
luxury for a young country.!. The Indians were divided among 
the Spaniards by the system of repartumentos, which will be more 
fully discussed in a subsequent part of this work. The necessities 
and cupidity of the early settlers in so vast a region rendered this 
necessary perhaps, though it was promptly discountenanced but 
never successfully suppressed by the Spanish crown. The scene 
of action was too remote, the subjects too selfish, and the ministers 
too venal or interested to carry out, with fidelity, the benign ordi- 
nances of the government at home. From this apportionment of 
Indians, which subjected them, in fact, to a species of slavery, it 
is but just to the conquerors to state that the Tlascalans, upon 
whom the burden of the fighting had fallen, were entirely exempted 
at the recommendation of Cortéz. 

Among all the tribes the work of conversion prospered, for the 
ceremonious ritual of the Aztec religion easily introduced the 
native worshippers to the splendid forms of the Roman Catholic. 
Agriculture and the mines were not neglected in the policy of 


1 Prescott 3d, 261. 


86 HONDURAS — GUATEMOZIN — MARIANA. 


Cortéz, and, in fact he speedily set in motion all the machinery of 
civilization, which was gradually to operate upon the native 
population whilst it attracted the overflowing, industrious or adven- 
turous masses of his native land. Various expeditions, too, for 
the purpose of exploration and extension, were fitted out by the 
Captain General of New Spain; so that, within three years after 
the conquest, Cortéz had reduced to the Spanish sway, a territory 
of over four hundred leagues, or twelve hundred miles on the 
Atlantic coast, and of more than five hundred leagues or fifteen 
hundred miles on the Pacific.! 

This sketch of a brief period after the subjugation of Mexico 
developes the constructive genius of Cortéz, as the preceding chap- 
ters had very fully exhibited his destructwe abilities. It shows, 
however, that he was not liable justly to the censure which has so 
often been cast upon him,—of being, only, a piratical plunderer 
who was seduced into the conquest by the spirit of rapine alone. 


In a historical narrative which is designed to treat exclusively 
of Mexico, it might perhaps be considered inappropriate to relate 
that portion of the biography of Cortéz which is covered by his 
expedition to Honduras, whither he marched after he learned the 
defection of his leutenant Olid whom he had sent to that distant 
region with a body of Spanish soldiers to found a dependant 
colony. It was whilst on this disastrous march that the report of 
a conspiracy to slay the Spaniards, in which Guatemozin was 
implicated, reached this ears, and that the dethroned monarch, 
together with several princes and inferior nobles, was hanged, by 
his orders, on the branches of a tree. There is a difference of 
opinion among contemporary writers as to the guilt of Guatemozin 
and the Aztec nobles; but it is probable that the unfortunate prince 
had become a dangerous and formidable captive and that the grave 
was a safer prison for such a personage, than the tents and 
bivouacs of a menaced army. 

Another renowned character in this drama—the serviceable and 
gentle Indian girl Dofia Mariana, —was no longer needed and was 
disposed of during this expedition, by marriage with Don Martin 
Xamarillo, to whom she brought a noble dowry of estates, which 
were assigned her by the conqueror in her native province, where, 
in all likelihood she ended her romantic career. Her son by 
Cortéz, named after his grand-father Don Martin, became distin- 


1 Prescott, vol. 3, 274. 


CORTEZ ACCUSED— ORDERED TO SPAIN FOR TRIAL. 87 


guished in the annals of the colony and of Spain, but in 1568, he 
was cruelly treated in the capital which had been won by the valor 
and fidelity of his parents. 


From this digression in his Mexican career, Cortéz was sud- 
denly recalled by the news of disturbances in the capital, which he 
reached after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage. His journey 
from the coast to the valley was a continued scene of triumphs ; 
and, from Tezcoco, in June, 1526, he made his stately entrance 
into the city of Mexico amid brilliant cavalcades, decorated streets, 
and lakes and canals covered with the fanciful skiffs of Indians. 

A month later, the joy of his rapturous reception was disturbed 
by the announcement that the Spanish Court had sent a commis- 
sioner to supercede him temporarily in the government. The 
work of sapping his power and influence had long been carried on 
at home; and false reports, involving Cortéz in extreme dis- 
honesty not only to the subjects but to the crown of Spain itself, 
at length infused suspicions into the sovereign’s mind. ‘The 
Emperor resolved to search the matter fairly to its core, and, 
accordingly, despatched Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a young, but 
able nobleman to perform this delicate task, at the same time that 
he wrote with his own hand to the conqueror, assuring him that his 
sole design was not to distrust or deprive him of his honors, but to 
afford him the opportunity of placing his integrity in a clear light 
before the world. 

De Leon, and the delegate chosen on his death bed, died within 
a few months, and were succeeded by Estrada, the royal treasurer, 
who was hostile to Cortéz, and whose malicious mismanagement 
of the investigation soon convinced even the Spanish court that 
it was unjust to leave so delicate and tangled a question in his 
hands. Accordingly the affair was transferred from Estrada to a 
commission styled the Audiencia Real de Espaiia, and Cartéz was 
commanded to hasten across the Atlantic in order to vindicate 
himself from the aspersions before this august body, which sat in 
the midst of his countrymen. 

Cortéz resolved to go at once; and, loyal to the last, rejected 
all the offers that were made him to reassume the reins of power, 
andependently of Spain. He carried with him a number of natives, 
together with specimens of all the natural and artificial products of 
his viceroyalty; nor did he forget a plentiful supply of gold, silver, 
and jewels, with which he might maintain, in the eyes of his 
luxurious countrymen, the state that was appropriate for one whose 


88 HIS RECEPTION, HONORS AND TITLES —HE MARRIES. 


conquests and acquisitions were so extensive. Sandoval and 
Tapia, too, departed with their beloved companion in arms, the 
former of whom, only, lived to land once more on his native land. 


As he journeyed from the sea-port towards Toledo, the curious 
crowds poured out on the way side to behold and welcome the 
hero of the New World; and from the gates of the city a gallant 
crowd of cavaliers poured forth, with the Duke de Bejar and the 
Count de Aguilar, to attend him to his dwelling. 

The Emperor received him with marked respect on the following 
day, and from the bountiful gifts and splendid titles which were 
showered upon Cortéz before the close of 1529, it seems that his 
sovereign was soon personally satisfied in his frequent and frank 
interviews with the conqueror, that the tales he had heard from 
across the sea were mere calumnies unworthy his notice. ‘The title 
of ‘“* Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca’”’ was bestowed on him. 
Lands in the rich province of Oaxaca, and estates in the city of 
Mexico and other places, were also ceded to him. ‘‘'The princely 
domain thus granted him,”’ says Prescott, ‘‘comprehended more 
than twenty towns and villages and twenty-three thousand vas- 
sals.”” The court and sovereign vied with each other in honoring 
and appreciating his services, and every privilege was no sooner 
demanded than granted, save that of again assuming the govern- 
ment of New Spain! 

It was the policy of the Spanish court not to entrust the rule of 
conquered countries to the men who had subdued them. ‘There 
was fancied, and perhaps real danger in confiding such dearly ac- 
quired jewels to ambitious and daring adventurers who might ripen 
into disloyal usurpers. 

Cortéz bowed submissively to the will of the Emperor. He was 
grateful for what had been graciously conceded to his merits and 
services; nor was he unwilling to enjoy the luxury of careless 
repose after so many years of toil. His first wife,— wedded as 
we have related in the Islands, —died a short time after she 
joined him in the capital after the conquest. Cortéz was yet 
young, nor was he ill favored or indisposed to slight the charms of 
the sex. A fair relative of the Aguilars and Bejars, Dofia Juana 
Zuniga, at this moment attracted his attention and was soon won. 
Her dower of jewels, wrested from the Aztecs, and carved by their 
most skilful workmen, was indescribably magnificent, and, after 
her splendid nuptials, she embarked, in 1530, with the conqueror 


: 
: 


Bea 


HIS RETURN TO MEXICO—RESIDES AT TEZCOCO. 89 


and his aged mother to return to the Indian Islands, and finally 
to New Spain. 

At Hispaniola he met an Audiencia Real, which was still to 
have jurisdiction of his case, if it ever came to trial, and at whose 
head was an avowed enemy of the conquerer, Nufode Guzman. 
The evidence was taken upon eight scandalous charges against 
Cortéz, and is of so suspicious a character that it not only disgusts 
the general reader, but also failed in its effect upon the Spanish 
court by which no action was finally taken in regard to it. 


Cortéz remained two months in the island before he set sail for 
Vera Cruz, in July 1530; and, in the meantime, the Bishop of 
San Domingo was selected to preside over a new Audiencia, 
inasmuch as the conduct of the late Audiencia, and of Guzman 
especially, in relation to the Indians, had become so odiously op- 
pressive that fears were entertained of an outbreak. The bishop 
and his coadjutors were men of a different stamp, who inspired the 
conqueror with better hopes for the future prosperity of the Indian 
colonies. 

So jealous was the home government of the dangerous influence 
of Cortéz,—a man so capable of establishing for himself an inde- 
pendent empire in the New World,—that he had ‘been inhibited 
from approaching the capital nearer than thirty leagues. But this 
did not prevent the people from approaching him. He returned 
to the scene of his conquest, with all the personal resentments and 
annoyances that had been felt by individuals of old, softened by 
the lapse of time during his prolonged absence in Spain. He 
came back, too, with all the prestige of his Emperor’s favor; and, 
thus, both by the new honors he had won at court, and the 
memory of his deeds, the masses felt disposed to acknowledge, at 
the moment of joyous meeting, that it was alone to him they owed 
their possessions, their wealth, their comfort, and their importance 
in New Spain. | 

Accordingly, Mexico was deserted by the courtiers, and Tez- 
coco, where he established his headquarters was thronged by 
eager crowds who came not only to visit but to consult the man 
whose wit and wisdom were as keen as his sword, and who re- 
visited Mexico, ripened into an astute statesman. 

Nevertheless, the seeming cordiality between the magistrates of 
the capital and the partly exiled Captain General, did not long 
continue. Occasions arose for difference of opinion and for dis- 
putes of even a more bitter character, until, at length, he turned his 

12 


90 EXPEDITIONS OF CORTEZ —-CALIFORNIA — QUIVARA. 


back on the glorious valley, — the scene of his noblest exploits, — 
forever, and took up his abode in his town of Cuernavaca, which, 
it will be recollected, he captured from the Aztecs before the capi- 
tal fell into his hands. This was a place lying in the lap of a 
beautiful valley, sheltered from the north winds and fronting the 
genial sun of the south, and here he once more returned to the 
cares of agriculture, — introducing the sugar cane from Cuba, en- 
couraging the cultivation of flax and hemp, and teaching the 
people the value of lands, cattle and husbandry which they had 
never known or fully appreciated. Gold and silver he drew from 
Zacatecas and Tehuantepec; but he seems to have wisely thought 
that the permanent wealth and revenue of himself and his heirs 
would best be found in tillage. 

Our limits will not permit us to dwell upon the agricultural, 
mineral and commercial speculations of Cortéz, nor upon his 
various adventures in Mexico. It is sufficient to say that he 
planned several expeditions, the most important of which, was un- 
successful in consequence of his necessary absence in Spain, 
whither he had been driven, as we have seen, to defend himself 
against the attacks of his enemies. Immediately, however, upon 
his return to Mexico, he not only sent forth various navigators, to 
make further discoveries, but departed himself for the coast of 
Jalisco, which he visited in 1534 and 1535. He recovered a 
ship, which had been seized by Nufio de Guzman; and having 
assembled the vessels he had commanded to be built in Tehuante- 
pec, he embarked every thing needful to found acolony. The 
sufferings he experienced in this expedition were extraordinarily 
great ; his little fleet was assailed by famine and tempests, and, so 
long was he unheard of, in Mexico, that, at the earnest instance of 
his wife, the viceroy Mendoza sent two vessels to search for him. 
He returned, at length, to Acapulco; but not content with his 
luckless efforts, he made arrangements for a new examination of 
the coasts, by Francisco de Uiloa, which resulted in the discovery 
of California, as far as the Isle de Cedros, and of all that gulf, to 
which geographers have given the name of the ‘Sea of Cortéz.” 

His expenses in these expeditions exceeded three hundred thou- 
sand castellanos of gold, which were never returned to him by the 
government of Spain. Subsequently, a Franciscan missionary, 
Fray Marcos de Niza, reported the discovery, north of Sonoma, of 
a rich and powerful nation called Quivara, whose capital he repre- 
sented as enjoying an almost European civilization. Cortéz 
claimed his right to take part in or command an expedition which 


RETURNS TO SPAIN— DEATH — WHERE ARE HIS BONES? 91 


the viceroy Mendoza was fitting out for its conquest. But he was 
baulked in his wishes, and was obliged to confine his future efforts 
for Mexico to works of beneficence in the capital. 

That portion of the conqueror’s life which impressed its power- 
ful characteristics upon New Spain was now over. ‘The rest of his 
story belongs rather to biography and the Old World than to 
a compressed narrative of Mexican history, for although he re- 
mained long in the country, and afterwards fought successfully 
under the Emperor’s banner in other lands, it appears that he was 
unable to win the Spanish crown to grant him authority over the 
empire he had subdued. He died at Castilleja de la Cuesta, near 
Seville, on the 2d of December, 1547. 

Cortéz provided in his will that his body should be in- 
terred in the place where he died, if that event occurred in Spain, 
and that, within ten years, his bones should be removed to 
New Spain and deposited in a convent of Franciscan nuns, 
which, under the name of La Concepcion, he ordered to be 
founded in Cuyoacan. Accordingly, his corpse was first of all 
laid in the convent of San Isidro, outside the walls of Seville, 
whence it was carried to Mexico and deposited in the church of 
San Francisco, at Tezcoco, inasmuch as the convent of Cuyoacan 
was not yet built. Thence the ashes of the hero were carried, in 
1629, to the principal chapel of the church of San Francis, in the 
capital; and, at last, were translated, on the 8th of November, 1794, 
to the church of the Hospital of Jesus, which Cortéz had founded. 
When the revolution broke out, a vindictive feeling prevailed not 
only against the living Spaniards, but against the dead, and men 
were found, who invoked the people to tear these honored relics from 
their grave, and after burning them at San Lazaro, to scatter the 
hated ashes to the winds. But, in the government and among the 
principal citizens, there were many individuals who eagerly sought 
an opportunity to save Mexico from this disgraceful act. These 
persons secretly removed the monument, tablet, and remains of the 
conqueror from their resting place in the Church of Jesus, and 
there is reason to believe, that at length they repose in peaceful 
concealment in the vaults of the family in Italy. Past generations 
deprived him, whilst living, of the right to rule the country he had 
won by his valor. Modern Mexico has denied his corpse even the 
refuge of a grave.! 


1See Alaman, Disertaciones sobre la historia de la Republica Mexicana, vol. 
2, p. 93 Appendix. 


CHAPTER XIII. 
650— 1500. 


ARCHBISHOP ZUMARRAGA’S DESTRUCTION OF MEXICAN MONU- 
MENTS, WRITINGS, DOCUMENTS—MR. GALLATIN’S OPINION OF 
THEM.—TRADITIONS—TWO SOURCES OF ACCURATE KNOW- 
LEDGE.— SPECULATIONS ON ANTIQUITY. —AZTECS—TOLTECS — 
NAHUATLACS——ACOLHUANS, ETC.—AZTECS EMIGRATE FROM 
AZTLAN—SETTLE IN ANAHUAC.—TABLES OF EMIGRATION OF 
THE ORIGINAL TRIBES—OTHER TRIBES IN THE EMPIRE. 


One of the most disgraceful destructions of property, recorded in 
history, is that which was accomplished in Mexico by the first 
Archbishop of New Spain, Juan de Zumarraga. He collected 
from all quarters, but especially from Tezcoco, where the national 
archieves were deposited, all the Indian manuscripts he could 
discover, and causing them to be piled in a great heap in the 
market place of Tlatelolco, he burned all these precious records, 
which under the skilful interpretation of competent natives, might 
have relieved the early history of the Aztecs from the obscurity 
with which it is now clouded. The superstitious soldiery eagerly 
imitated the pious example of this prelate, and emulated each other 
in destroying all the books, charts, and papers, which bore hiero- 
glyphic signs, whose import, they had been taught to believe 
was as sacrilegiously symbolic and pernicious as that of the idols 
they had already hurled from the Indian temples. 

And yet, it may be questioned, whether these documents, had 
they been spared even as the curious relics of the literature or art 
of a semi-civilized people, would have enlightened the path of the 
historical student. ‘It has been shown,” says Mr. Gallatin, ‘that 
those which have been preserved contain but a meagre account of 
the Mexican history for the one hundred years preceding the con- 
quest, and hardly anything that relates to prior events. The ques- 
tion naturally arises—from what source those writers derived their 
information, who have attempted to write not only the modern 
history of Mexico, but that of ancient times? It may, without 
hesitation, be answered, that their information was traditional. 
The memory of important events is generally preserved and trans- 


S 


TRADITIONS — TWO SOURCES OF ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE. 93 


mitted by songs and ballads, in those nations which have attained 
a certain degree of civilization, and had not the use of letters. 
Unfortunately, if we except the hymns of the great monarch of 
Tezcoco, which are of recent date, and allude to no historical fact 
of an earlier epoch than his own times, no such Mexican remnants 
have been transmitted to us, or published. On the other hand the 
recollection and oral transmission of events may have been aided 
by the hieroglyphics imperfect as they were; thus, those of the 
significant names of a king and of a city, together with the symbol 
of the year, would remind the Mexicans of the history of the war 
of that king against that city which had been early taught him 
whilst a student in the temple.” ! 

It is thus, perhaps, that the virtuoso rather than the historical 
student has been the sufferer by the superstitious conflagrations of 
Zumarraga and the Spanish soldiers. We have unquestionably 
lost most of the minute events of early Aztec history. We have 
remained ignorant of much of the internal policy of the realm, and 
have been obliged to play the antiquarian in the discussion of dates 
and epochs, whose perfect solution, even, would not cast a solitary 
ray of light upon the grand problem of this continent’s develop- 
ment or population. But amid all this obscurity, ignorance, and 
diffuseness, we have the satisfaction to know that some valuable 
facts escaped the grasp of these destroyers, and that the grand 
historical traditions of the empire were eagerly listened to and 
recorded by some of the most enlightened Europeans who hastened 
after the conquest to New Spain. The song, the story, and the 
anecdote, handed down from sire to son in a nation which pos- 
sessed no books, no system of writing, no letters, no alphabet, — 
formed in reality the great chain connecting age with age, king 
with king, family with family ;—and, as the gigantic bond length- 
ened with time, some of its links were adorned with the embel- 
lishments of fancy, whilst others, in the dim and distant past, 
became almost imperceptible. Nor were the conquerors and their 
successors men devoted to the antiquities of the Mexicans with the 
generous love of enthusiasts who delight in disclosing the means 
by which a people emerged from the obscurity of a tribe into the 
grandeur of a civilized nation. In most cases the only object they 
had in magnifying, or even in manifesting the real character, 
genius and works of the Mexicans, is to be found in their desire to 
satisfy their country and the world that they had indeed conquered 


1 1 vol. Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., p. 145. Art. Mexican Hist. Chron., &c. &c., 
by Albert Gallatin. 


94 SPECULATIONS ON ANTIQUITY. 


an empire, and not waged exterminating war against naked but 
wealthy savages. It was, in fact, a species of self laudation ; and 
it has, therefore, not been without at least a slight degree of 
incredulity that we read the glowing early accounts of the palaces, 
the state and the power of the Mexican emperors. The graphic 
works of Mr. Stephens on Yucatan and Central America, seem, 
however, to open new authorities upon this vast problem of civili- 
zation. Architecture never lies. It is one of those massive 
records which require too much labor in order to record a false- 
hood. ‘The men who could build the edifices of Uxmal, Palenque, 
Copan and Chichen-Itza, were far removed from the aboriginal 
condition of Nomadic tribes. Taste and luxury had been long 
grafted on the mere wants of the natives. They had learned not 
only to build for protection against weather, but for permanent 
homes whose internal arrangements should afford them comfort, 
and whose external appearance should gratify the public taste. 
Order, symmetry, elegance, beauty of ornament, gracefulness of 
symbolic imagery, had all combined to exhibit the external mani- 
festations which are always seen among people who are not only 
anxious to gratify others as well as themselves, but to vie with 
each other in the exhibition of individual tastes. Here, however, 
as in Egypt, the architectural remains are chiefly of temples, 
tombs and palaces. The worship of God,—the safety of the body 
after death, —and the permanent idea of loyal obedience to autho- 
rity, —are symbolized by the temple, —tomb, —and the rock-built 
palace. The masses, who felt they had no constant abiding place 
on earth, did not in all probability, build for themselves those 
substantial and beautifully embellished homes, under whose influ- 
ence modern civilization has so far exceeded the barren humanism 
of the valley of the Nile. It was useless, they deemed, to enshrine 
in marble whilst living, the miserable spirit that, after death, might 
crawl in a crocodile or burrow in a hog. Christianity, alone, has 
made the Dwelling paramount to the Tomb and the Palace. 

We cannot leave the early history of Spanish occupation without 
naturally casting our eyes over the empire which it was the destiny 
of Cortéz to conquer. Of its geographical boundaries we know 
but little. The dominions of the original Aztecs covered but a 
small part of the territory comprehended in modern Mexico; and 
although they were enlarged during the empire, they did not even 
then extend beyond the eighteenth degree and the twenty-first on 
the Atlantic or Gulf, and beyond the fourteenth and nineteenth 
degree including a narrow slip on the Pacific. 


AZTECS — TOLTECS — NAHUATLACS — ACOLHUANS. 95 


The seat and centre of the Mexican empire was in the valley of 
Mexico, in a temperate climate, whose genial mildness is gained 
by its elevation of over seven thousand feet above the level of the 
sea. The features of this region,—the same now as at the 
conquest, —will be more fully described hereafter in those chapters 
which treat of the geography and statistics of modern Mexico. 

On the eastern or western borders of the lake of Tezcoco, facing 
each other, stood the ancient cities of Tenochtitlan or Mexico, 
and of Tezcoco. These were the capitals of the two most famous, 
flourishing and civilized states of Anahuac, the sources of whose 
population and progress are veiled in the general mystery that 
overhangs the early history of our continent. 

The general, and best received tradition that we possess upon 
the subject, declares that the original inhabitants of this beautiful 
valley came from the north; and that perhaps the earliest as well 
as the most conspicuous in the legends, were the Toltecs, who 
moved to the south before the end of the seventh century, and 
settled at Tollan or Tula, north of the Mexican valley, where ex- 
tensive architectural remains were yet to be found at the period of 
the conquest. This spot seems to have gradually become the 
parent hive of civilization and advancement; but, after four cen- 
turies, during which they extended their sway over the whole of 
Anahuac, the Toltecs are alleged to have wasted away by famine, 
disease, and the slow desolation of unsuccessful wars. This 
occurred about the year 1051, as the Indian tradition relates, —and 
the few who escaped the ravages of death, departed for those 
more southern regions now known as Yuéatan and Guatemala, in 
which we perhaps find the present remains of their civilization 
displayed in the temples, edifices and tombs of Palenque and 
Uxmal. During the next century these valleys and mountains 
were nearly desolate and bare of population, until a rude and 
altogether uncivilized tribe, known as the Chichimecas, came from 
Amaquemecan, in the north, and settled in villages among the ruins 
of their Toltec predecessors. After eight years, six other Indian 
tribes called Nahuatlacs arrived, and announced the approach of 
another band from the-north, known as the Aztecs, who, soon 
afterwards, entered Anahuac. About this period the Acolhuans, 
who are said to have emigrated from Teoacolhucan, near the 
original territories of the Chichimecas, advanced into the valley 
and speedily allied themselves with their ancient neighbors. 
These tribes appear to have been the founders of the Tezcocan 


96 AZTECS EMIGRATE FROM AZTLAN—SETTLE IN ANAHUAC. 


government and nation which was once assailed successfully by 
the Tepanecs, but was finally delivered from thraldom by the 
signal bravery and talents of the prince Nezahualcoyotl, who was 
heir of the crown, supported by his Mexican allies. 

Our chief concern, however, in groping our way through the 
tangled labyrinth of tradition, is to ascertain the story of the 
AztTEcs, whose advent has been already announced. It was 
about the year 1160, that they departed from Aztlan, the original 
seat of their tribe, on their journey of southern emigration. Their 
pilgrimage seems to have been interrupted by numerous halts and 
delays, both on their route through the northern regions now 
comprehended in the modern Republic of Mexico, as well as in 
different parts of the Mexican valley which was subsequently to 
become their home and capital. At length, in 1325, they descried 
an eagle resting on a cactus which sprang from the crevice of a 
rock in the lake of Tezcoco, and grasping in his talons a writhing 
serpent. This had been designated by the Aztec oracles as the 
site of the home in which the tribe should rest after its long and 
weary migration; and, accordingly, the city of Tenochtitlan, was 
founded upon the sacred spot, and like another Venice rose from 
the bosom of the placid waters. 

It was near a hundred years after the founding of the city, and 
in the beginning of the fifteenth century, that the Tepanecs 
attacked the Tezcocan monarchy, as has been related in the pre- 
vious part of this chapter. The Tezcocans and the Aztecs or 
Mexicans united to put down the power of the spoiler, and as a 
recompense for the important services of the allies, the supreme 
dominion of the territory of the royal house of Tezcoco was trans- 
ferred to the Aztecs. The Tezcocan sovereigns thus became, in a 
measure, mediatized princes of the Mexican throne; and the two 
states, together with the neighboring small kingdom of Tlacopan, 
south of the lake of Chalco, formed an offensive and defensive league 
which was sustained with unwavering fidelity through all the wars 
and assaults which ensued during the succeeding century. The 
bold leaguers united in that spirit of plunder and conquest which 
characterizes a martial people, as soon as they are surrounded by 
the necessaries, comforts, and elegances of life in their “own 
country, and whenever the increase of population begins to require 
a vent through which it may expand those energies that would 
destroy the state by rebellions or civil war, if pent up within the 
narrow limits of so small a realm as the valley of Mexico. Ac- 
cordingly we find that the sway of this small tribe, which had but 


TABLES OF EMIGRATION OF THE ORIGINAL TRIBES. 97 


just nestled among the reeds, rocks and marshes of the lake, was 
quickly spread beyond the mountain barrier that hemmed in the 
valley. Like the Hollanders, they became great by the very 
wretchedness of their site, and the vigilant industry it enforced. 
The Aztec arms were triumphant throughout all the plains that 
swept downward towards the Atlantic, and, as we have seen, even 
maintained dominion on the shores of the Pacific, or penetrated, 
under the bloody Ahuitzotl, the remotest corners of Guatemala and 
Nicaragua. 

Such was the extent of Aztec power at the beginning of the 
16th century, at the period of the Spanish incursion. 


Notre.— The discrepancies in the dates assigned by several writers as to the pe- 
riods of the emigration of various tribes and the reigns of their sovereigns, are care- 
fully presented in the following table, given by Albert Gallatin, in his essay on 
the Mexican nations — 1 vol. Ethnol. Soc. Transac. 162. 


TOLTECS. 
Alva. Sahagun. a es i ah 

Arrived at Huehuetlalpallan.........ee..eeeeee - e3er 50.0.0 
Departed from Ger plete ete atenaustefetel eistafofo'cetevalols ©, sicisls Bidicis 596 “544 
Bifey Tound ula... snc ss cce ec cieee cee ccsencase 498 erie 713 720 
BeMAVONY DOSING... 2.525 sve sce cnee ce cscueee 510 Soe oi 667 
Monarchy ends......+e..seeeeeees Join ee 5 Bicig Hage 959 sees 1116 1051 

Cuicnimecas AND ACoLHUANS OR TEZCOCANS. about 
Xolotl, 1st King occupies the valley of Mexico.... 963 apes 1120 1170 
Napoltzin, 2d King ascends the throne.........-. 1075 Sieve 1232 13 cen 
An cet 3d King, so called erroneously, ascends 

RIMETEIIBONC. «oso cre soccer ce tees seco eesecrese «+ 1107 cee 1263 14 cen 
Quinantzin, 4th King ascends the throne......... 114] sie 1298 14 cen 
Tlaltecatzin Ist King according to Sahagun ascends y 

METOHEOWCs © ol. wee pc-ere sce cece ses recesses 1246 slisle’s eee 


Techotlalatzin 5th (2d, Sahagun) ascends tie roe 1953 1271 1357 14 cen 
Ixtlilxochitl 6th (3d, Sahagun) ie pee tet, L3OM 1331 1409 1406 
Netzahual-Coyotzin 7th (4th, Sahagun) ascends the 


UME Coe oe crcl eve tiee cietee es slele S'eelg seeeserae's 1418 1392 1418 1426 
Netzahual-Pilzintli 8th (Sth, Sahagun) ascends the 
I esl cclcne ic ies 0 vicsvcleisnieleie aces waicte cs 1462 1463 nvorale 1470 
TP PeAVSIOE IZINLIT CIES. 2 cece cc cee ccc caresses {515 1516 Sates 1516 
TEPANECS, OR TECPANECS OF ACAPULCO. 
PUB OUMMIDAEPIVES 5, cso ce ccc wes de secsccecssecees 1011 etoat4 1158 wees 
Acolhua 2d son of Acolhua Ist arrives............ woe sotels 1239 


Tezozomac son according to D’Alva, grandson ac- 
cording to Veytia of the Ist Acolhua arrives.... 1299 1348 1343 


Maxtlan, son of Tezozomac arrives........0.000+ 1427 aes 1427 1422 
Mexicans or AzrTecs. 

Mexicans leave Aztlan........... areal sina bistere's, ie'e's)-0 ehovet’d 1064 1160 

“- arrive at Huvieleolhuacan..........0cc0s sess Bus HO 1168 

- BG) TAU CMICOMIOUZOC.: eee 0'e Ss 0 sve sce eee Histel's 1168 syatahs 

“ “¢ at valley of Mexico.........es0. 1141 cone 1227 1216 

Gd ‘¢ at Chapultepec...... Gehcveiseieeewieia sia aise ; aoe 1245 


13 


98 TABLE OF EMIGRATION —OTHER TRIBES IN THE EMPIRE. 


< § = Bs 3 2 S 
S38 88S BS book ul eee es 
Mexicans or Aztecs. Syria S, Sai ee 3 8 
SS 68 ¢g B aoe) & IN 5 
Foundation of Mexico or Te- 

HOCHUtIAN. 6. 60's cece eco cee LSE cece) coat MO aMnameni Tt le) an areneee 1325 
Acamapichtli, elected King. 1375 1399 1384 1361 1141 1384 1361 1352 
Huitzilihuitl, accession....... 1396 1406 1424 1403 1353 .... 1402 1389 
Chimalpopoca....-s.ssa.2%5 + P17 | 1Al4. 1427 1414 1357 os. ¢ 14 a9 
Ytzcoatl........ ee ae 1427 1426 1437 (1497 1497 ..... 1497 1493 
Wontezuma ist. +s. 2 see: 1440 1440 1449 1440 T4407 2 Sl, ase 
Agayacatl. sis ceccsme mae ted ee 1469 1469 1481 1468 1469 1464 
WM AZOCR ieterere s eeus ees ce secoeees 1482 1483 1487 1481 1483 ; 1477 
AMUIITZON:\s iste ntorsusdete’ tie ot eretete 1486 1486 1492 1486 1486 1482 
Montezuma 20. ak eo 1502 1502 1503 1502 1503 » sloue 
DuRATION OF REIGNS OF MExr- 

cAN Kines. 
Acamaprchtlins, 225% she ses. 21 | 40 49% -150 21 4] 37 
PPUMtZ ih with:, Hiss fees sc 21 8 3 11 50 21 12 20 
Chimalpopoca.......0...s80% 10 12 10 13 7 10 13 14 
Wt7coOatliSnecnscstioniteaemne 13 14 12 13 13 14 wis 13 
Montezuma Ist. co... 6e. ees 29 29 ae 28 29 30 28 
PNG AWC AE lt aici etelete reins eletsiohe ste s 13 14 6 13 14 14 13 
UZ OC reine cele ote ose ineenes e 4 3 5 5 3 4 a 5 
Auto a ose sole Gears are con 16 16 11 16 17 8 ote 16 
Montezuma Odi. cacpcciclcks iets e 17 17 16 17 17 19. a 17 


The writers and documents cited in the preceding columns are esteemed the 
highest authority upon Mexican history and antiquities. 

This is perhaps the best comparative table of Mexican Chronology, — up to the 
period of the conquest, — that has ever been compiled; and the great discrepancy 
between the dates assigned by various authorities, exhibits the guess work upon 
which the earlier Mexican history is founded. 

In addition to the tribes or States enumerated in the preceding tables as consti- 
tuting the nucleus’of the Mexican empire under Montezuma, at the period of the 
Spanish conquest, it must be recollected that there were numerous other Indian 
States, —such as the Tlascalans, Cholulans, &c., whose origin is more obscure 
even than that of the Aztecs. Besides these, there were, on the territories now 
comprehended within the Mexican republic, the Tarascos who inhabited Michoa- 
can, an independent sovereignty ;—the barbarous Ottomies; the Olmecs; the 
Xicalancas ; the Miztecas, and Zapotecas. The last named are supposed by Baron 
Humboldt to have been superior, in civilization, to the Mexicans, and probably 
preceded the Toltecs in the date of their emigration. Their architectural remains 
are found in Oaxaca. If we consider the comparatively small space in which the 
original tribes were gathered together in the valley of Mexico, which is not proba- 
bly over two hundred and fifty miles in circumference, we cannot but be surprised 
that such remarkable results were achieved from such paltry beginnings and upon 
so narrow atheatre. The subjugation of so large a territory and such numerous 
tribes, by the Aztecs and Tezcocans is perhaps quite as wonderful an achievement, 
as the final subjugation of those victorious nations by the Spaniards. But in all our 
estimates of Spanish valor and generalship, in the splendid campaigns of Cortéz, 
we should never forget, —as we have remarked in the text, — the material assist- 
ance he received from his Indian allies — the Tlascalans. 


vf 
G 


cs SSS Ss eee 
SUNN 


SS 
ie Mb sya 


a 


= 


== = 


_—S, 
————— 


} 
fy 


AZTEC 


COSTUMES AND ARMS. 


or 


CHAPTER X1V. 
152. 


DIFFICULTY OF ESTIMATING THE CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS. — 
NATIONS IN YUCATAN. — VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. — 
THE AZTEC MONARCHY — ELECTIVE. —ROYAL STYLE IN TE- 
NOCHTITLAN. — MONTEZUMA’S WAY OF LIFE.—DESPOTIC POWER 
OF THE EMPEROR OVER LIFE AND LAW.— THEFT — INTEM- 
PERANCE — MARRIAGE — SLAVERY — WAR. — MILITARY SYSTEM 
AND HOSPITALS — COIN — REVENUES. — AZTEC MYTHOLOGY. — 
IMAGE OF TEOYAOMIQUI.—TEOCALLI — TWO KINDS OF SACRI- 
FICE. — WHY THE AZTECS SACRIFICED THEIR PRISONERS. — 
COMMON SACRIFICE — GLADIATORIAL SACRIFICE — SACRIFICIAL 
STONE. — AZTEC CALENDAR— WEEK, MONTH, YEAR, CYCLE. — 
PROCESSION OF THE NEW FIRE— ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE. — 
AZTEC CALENDAR. —TABLES. 


Ir is perhaps altogether impossible to judge, at this remote day, 
of the absolute degree of civilization, enjoyed at the period of the 
conquest, by the inhabitants not only of the valley of Mexico and 
Tezcoco, but also of Oaxaca, Tlascala, Michoacan, Yucatan, and 
their various dependencies. In studying this subject carefully, even 
in the classical pages of Mr. Prescott, and in the laborious criti- 
cisms of Mr. Gallatin, we find ourselves frequently bewildered in 
the labyrinth of historical details and picturesque legends, which 
have been carefully gathered and grouped to form a romantic pic- 
ture of the Aztec nation. Yet facts enough have survived, not only 
the wreck of the conquest, but also the comparative stagnation of 
the viceroyalty, to satisfy us that there was a large class of people, 
at least in the capitals and their vicinity, whose tastes, habits, and 
social principles, were nearly equal to the civilization of the Old 
World at that time. There were strange inconsistences in the 
principles and conduct of the Mexicans, and strange blendings of 
softness and brutality, for the savage was as yet but rudely grafted 
on the citizen and the wandering or predatory habits of a tribe 
were scarcely tamed by the needful restraints of municipal law. 

It is probable thatthe Aztec refinement existed chiefly in the 
city of Tenochtitlan or Mexico; or, that the capital of the em- 
pire, like the capital of France, absorbed the greater share of the 
genius and cultivation of the whole country. Our knowledge of 
Yucatan, and of the wonderful cities which have been revealed in 
its forests by the industry of Mr. Stephens, is altogether too 
limited to allow any conjectures, at this period, in regard to their 


100 VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. 


mwnhabitants. It is likely that they were offshoots from the same 
race as the Aztecs, and that they all owed the first germs of their 
separate civilizations to the Toltecs, who, according to the legends, 
were the great traditionary ancestors of all the progressive races 
that succeeded each other in emigrating from the north, and finally 
nestled in the lovely vale of Anahuac. 

It is in the examination of such a period that we feel sensibly 


the want of careful contemporary history, and learn to value those 


narratives which present us the living picture of an age, even 
though they are sometimes tainted with the intolerance of religious 
sectarianism and bigotry, or by the merciless rancor of party 
malice. They give us, at least, certain material facts, which are 
independent of the spirit or context of the story. Posterity, which 
is now eager for details, infinitely prefers a sketch like this, warm 
and breathing with the vitality of the beings in whose presence 
and from whose persons it is drawn, to the cold mosaics, made up 
by skilful artizans, from the disjointed chips which they are forced 
to discover, harmonize, and polish, amid the discordant materials 
left by a hundred writers. Such labors, when undertaken by 
patient men, may sometimes reanimate the past and bring back 
its scenes, systems and people, with wonderful freshness; yet, 
after all, they are but mere restorations, and often depend, essen- 
tially on the vivid imagination which supplies the missing frag- 
ments and fills them, for a moment, with an electrical instead of a 
natural life. 

After a careful review of nearly all the historians and writers 
upon the ancient history of Mexico, we have never encountered a 
satisfactory view of the Aztec empire, except in the history of the 
conquest, by our countryman Prescott. His chapters upon the 
Mexican civilization, are the best specimens in our literature, since 
the days of Gibbon, of that laborious, truthful, antiquarian temper, 
which should always characterize a historian who ventures upon 
the difficult task of portraying the distant past. 


In our rapid sketch of the conquest, we have been compelled to | 


present, occasionally, a few descriptive glimpses of the Aztec 
architecture, manners, customs and institutions, which have 
already acquainted the reader with some of the leading features 
of national character. But it will not be improper, in a work 
like this, to combine in a separate chapter such views of the whole 
structure of Mexican society, under the original empire, as may 
not only afford an idea of the advancement of the nation which 


~*~ 


THE AZTEC MONARCHY — ELECTIVE. 101 


Cortéz conquered, but, perhaps, will present the student with some 
national characteristics of a race that still inhabits Mexico jointly 
with the Spanish emigrants, and which is the lawful descendant 
of the wandering tribes who founded the city of Tenochtitlan. 


The Aztec government was a monarchy, but the right to the 
throne did not fall by the accident of descent upon a lineal relative 
of the last king, whose age would have entitled him, by European 
rule, to the royal succession. The brothers of the deceased prince, 
or his nephews, if he had no nearer kin, were the individuals from 
whom the new sovereign was chosen by four nobles who had been 
selected as electors by their own aristocratic body during the pre- 
ceding reign. ‘These electors, together with the two royal allies of 
Tezcoco and Tlacopan, who were united in the college as merely 
honorary personages, decided the question as to the candidate, 
whose warlike and intellectual qualities were always closely 
scanned by these severe judges. 

The elevation of the new monarch to the throne was pompous: 
yet, republican and just as was the rite of selection, the ceremony 
of coronation was not performed until the new king had procured, 
by conquest in war, a crowd of victims to grace his assumption 
of the crown with their sacrifice at the altar. The palaces of these 
princes and their nobles were of the most sumptuous character, ac- 
cording to the description that has been left us by the conquerors 
themselves. 

The royal state and style of these people may be best described 
in the artless language of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier of 
the conquest, whose simple narrative, though sometimes colored 
with the superstitions of his age, is one of the most valuable and 
veritable relics of that great event that has been handed down to 
posterity. 

In describing the entrance of the Spaniards into the city — Diaz 
declares, with characteristic energy, that the whole of what he saw 
on that occasion appeared to him as if he had beheld it but yester- 
day ;—and he fervently exclaims: ‘Glory be to our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who gave us courage to venture on such dangers and 
brought us safely through them ! ”’ 

The Spaniards, as we have already said in a preceding chapter, 
were lodged and entertained at the expense of Montezuma, who 
welcomed them as his guests, and unwisely attempted to convince 
them of his power by exhibiting his wealth and state. Two hun- 
dred of his nobility stood as guards in his ante-chamber. 


102 ROYAL STYLE IN TENOCHTITLAN. 


‘‘Of these,’”’ says Diaz, ‘‘ only certain persons could speak to 
him, and when they entered, they took off their rich mantles and put 
on others of less ornament, but clean. They approached his apart- 
ment barefooted, their eyes fixed on the ground and making three 
inclinations of the body as they approached him. In addressing 
the king they said, ‘‘ Lord —my lord—great lord!’? When they 
had finished, he dismissed them with a few words, and they retired 
with their faces toward him and their eyes fixed on the ground. I 
also observed, that when great men came from a distance about 
business, they entered his palace barefooted, and in plain habit; 
and also, that they did not come in by the gate directly, but took 
a circuit in going toward it. 

‘¢ His cooks had upward of thirty dittetons ways of dressing 
meats, and they had earthen vessels so contrived as to keep them 
constantly hot. For the table of Montezuma himself, above three 
hundred dishes were dressed, and for his guards above a thousand. 


Before dinner, Montezuma would sometimes go out and inspect 


the preparations, and his officers would point out to him which 
were the best, and explain of what birds and flesh they were 
composed; and of those he would eat. But this was more for 
amusement than anything else. 

‘‘Tt is said, that at times the flesh of young children was dressed 


for him; but the ordinary meats were domestic fowls, pheasants, — 


geese, partridges, quails, venison, Indian hogs, pigeons, hares and 
rabbits, with many other animals and birds peculiar to the country. 
This is certain—that after Cortéz had spoken to him relative to 
the dressing of human flesh, it was not practised in his palace. 
At his meals, in the cold weather, a number of torches of the bark 
of a wood which makes no smoke, and has an aromatic smell, 
were lighted; and, that they should not throw too much heat, 
screens, ornamented with gold and painted with figures of idols, 
were placed before them. 

‘¢ Montezuma was seated on a low throne or chair, at a table 
proportioned to the height of his seat. ‘The table was covered 
with white cloths and napkins, and four beautiful women presented 
him with water for his hands, in vessels which they call xicales, 
with other vessels under them, like plates, to catch the water. 
They also presented him with towels. 

‘‘Then two other women brought small cakes of bread, and, 
when the king began to eat, a large screen of gilded wood was 
placed before him, so that during that period people should not 
behold him. The women having retired to a little distance, four 


MONTEZUMA’S WAY OF LIFE. 103 


ancient lords stood by the throne, to whom Montezuma, from time 
to time, spoke or addressed questions, and as a mark of particular 
favor, gave to each of them a plate of that which he was eating. 
I was told that these old lords, who were his near relations, were 
also counsellors and judges. The plates which Montezuma pre- 
sented to them they received with high respect, eating what was 
on them without taking their eyes off the ground. He was served 
in earthenware of Cholula, red and black. While the king was at 
the table, no one of his guards in the vicinity of his apartment 
dared, for their lives, make any noise. | Fruit of all kinds produced 
in the country, was laid before him; he ate very little; but, from 
time to time, a liquor prepared from cocoa, and of a stimulative 
quality, as we were told, was presented to him in golden cups. 
We could not, at that time, see whether he drank it or not; but I 
observed a number of jars, above fifty, brought in, filled with 
foaming chocolate, of which he took some that the women pre- 
sented him. 

‘‘ At different intervals during the time of dinner, there entered 
certain Indians, humpbacked, very. deformed, and ugly, who played 
tricks of buffoonery; and others who, they said, were jesters. 
There was also a company of singers and dancers, who afforded 
Montezuma much entertamment. ‘To these he ordered the vases 
of chocolate to be distributed. The four female attendants then 
took away the cloths, and again, with much respect, presented him 
with water to wash his hands, during which time Montezuma 
conferred with the four old noblemen formerly mentioned, after 
which they took their leave with many ceremonies. 

‘One thing I forgot (and no wonder,) to mention in its place, 
and that is, during the time that Montezuma was at dinner, two 
very beautiful women were busily employed making small cakes,} 
with eggs and other things mixed therein. These were delicately 
white, and, when made, they presented them to him on plates 
covered with napkins. Also another kind of bread was brought 
to him in long leaves, and plates of cakes resembling wafers. _ 

*‘ After he had dined, they presented to him three little canes, 
highly ornamented, containing liquid-amber, mixed with an herb 
they call tobacco; and when he had sufficiently viewed and heard 
the singers, dancers, and buffoons, he took a little of the smoke of 
one of these canes, and then laid himself down to sleep. 


1No doubt tortillias, or maize cakes — still the staff of life with all the Indians 
and, indeed, a favorite and daily food of all classes of Mexicans. 


104 DESPOTIC POWER OF THE EMPEROR OVER LIFE AND LAW. 


‘¢ The meal of the monarch ended, all his guards and domestics 
sat down to dinner; and, as near as I could judge, above a thou- 
sand plates of those eatables that I have mentioned, were laid 
before them, with vessels of foaming chocolate and fruit in 
immense quantity. For his women, and various inferior servants, 
his establishment was of a prodigious expense; and we were 
astonished, amid such a profusion, at the vast regularity that 
prevailed. 

‘His major domo kept the accounts of Montezuma’s rents in 
books which occupied an entire house. 

‘¢ Montezuma had two buildings filled with every kind of arms, 
richly ornamented with gold and jewels; such as shields, large and 
small clubs like two-handed swords, and lances much larger than 
ours, with blades six feet in length, so strong that if they fix ina 
shield they do not break ; and sharp enough to use as razors. 

‘¢ There was also an immense quantity of, bows and arrows, and 
darts, together with slings, and shields which roll up into a small 
compass and in action are let fall, and thereby cover the whole 
body. He had also much defensive armor of quilted cotton, 
ornamented with feathers in different devices, and casques for the 
head, made of wood and bone, with plumes of feathers, and many 
other articles too tedious to mention.” ! 

Besides this sumptuous residence in the city, the Emperor is 
supposed to have had others at Chapultepec, Tezcoco and else- 
where, which will be spoken of when we describe the ancient 
remains of Mexico in the valley of Mexico. 

If the sovereign lived, thus, in state befitting the ruler of such 
an empire, it may be supposed that his courtiers were not less 
sumptuous in their style of domestic arrangements. The great 
body of the nobles and caciques, possessed extensive estates, the 
tenures of which were chiefly of a military character ; — and, upon 
these large possessions, surrounded by warlike natives and numerous 
slaves, they lived, doubtless, like many of the independent, power- 
ful chieftains in Europe, who, in the middle ages, maintained their 


feudal splendor, both in private life and in active service whenever 


summoned by their sovereigns to give aid in war. 

The power of the Emperor over the laws of the country as well 
as over the lives of the people, was perfectly despotic, There 
were supreme judges in the chief towns, appointed by the Emperor 
who possessed final jurisdiction in civil and criminal causes; and 
there were, besides, minor courts in each province, as well as 


1 Bernal Diaz Del Castillo’s Hist. Cong. Mexico. 


¥ 


THEFT — INTEMPERANCE — MARRIAGE— SLAVERY— WAR. 105 


subordinate officers, who performed the duty of police officers or 
spies over the families that were assigned to their vigilance. 
Records were kept in these courts of the decisions of the judges ; 
and the laws of the realm were likewise perpetuated and made 
certain, in the same hieroglyphic or picture writing. ‘The 
great crimes against society,’? says Prescott, ‘‘ were all made 
capital; even the murder of a slave was punished with death. 
Adulterers, as among the Jews, were stoned to death. Thieving, 
according to the degree of the offence, was punished with slavery 
or death. It was a capital offence to remove the boundaries of 
another’s lands; to alter the established measures ; and for a guar- 
dian not to be able to give a good account of his ward’s property. 
Prodigals who squandered their patrimony were punished in like 
manner. Intemperance was visited with the severest penalties, 
as if they had foreseen in it the consuming canker of their own as 
well as of the other Indian races in later times. It was punished 
in the young with death, and in older persons with loss of rank 
and confiscation of property. 

‘‘The rites of marriage were celebrated with as much formality 
as in any christian country; and the institution was held in such 
reverence, that a tribunal was established for the sole purpose of 
determining questions in regard to it. Divorces could not be 
obtained, until authorized by a sentence of this court after a patient 
hearing of the parties.” ! 

Slavery seems to have always prevailed in Mexico. The cap- 
tives taken in war were devoted to the gods under the sacrificial 
knife ; but criminals, public debtors, extreme paupers, persons who 
willingly resigned their freedom, and children who were sold by 
their parents, — were allowed to be held in bondage and to be 
transferred from hand to hand, but only in cases in which their 
masters were compelled by poverty to part with them. 

A nation over which the god of war presided and whose king 
was selected, mainly, for his abilities as a chieftain, naturally 
guarded and surrounded itself with a well devised military system. 
Religion and war were blended in the imperial ritual. Monte- 
zuma, himself had been a priest before he ascended the throne. 
This dogma of the Aztec policy, originated, perhaps, in the 
necessity of keeping up a constant military spirit among a people 
whose instincts were probably civilized, but whose geographical 
position exposed them, in the beginning, to the attacks of unquiet 
and annoying tribes. The captives were sacrificed to the bloody 


Prescott, vol. 1, p. 35. 


106 MILITARY SYSTEM AND HOSPITALS, —COIN— REVENUES. 


deity in all likelihood, because it was necessary to free the country 
from dangerous Indians, who could neither be imprisoned, for they 
were too numerous, nor allowed to return to their tribes, because 
they would speedily renew the attack on their Aztec liberators. 

Accordingly we find that the Mexican armies were properly 
officered, divided, supported and garrisoned, throughout the em- 
pire ; — that there were military orders of merit ; — that the dresses 
of the leaders, and even of some of the regiments, were gaudily 
picturesque ; that their arms were excellent;—and that the 
soldier who died in combat, was considered by his superstitious 
countrymen, as passing at once to ‘the region of ineffable bliss in 
the bright mansions of the sun.’’ Nor were these military establish- 
ments left to the caprice of petty officers for their judicial system. 
They possessed a set of recorded laws which were as sure and 
severe as the civil or criminal code of the empire ; —and, finally, 
when the Aztec soldier became too old to fight, or was disabled 
in the national wars, he was provided for in admirable hospitals 
which were established in all the principal cities of the realm. 

But all this expensive machinery of state and royalty, was not 
supported without ample revenues from the people. There was a 
currency of different values regulated by trade, which consisted of 
quills filled with gold dust; of pieces of tin cut in the form of a T; 
of balls of cotton, and bags of cacao containing a specified number 
of grains. The greater part of Aztec trade was, nevertheless, 
carried on by barter; and, thus, we find that the large taxes which 
were derived by Montezuma from the crown lands, agriculture, 
manufactures, and the labors or occupations of the people gene- 
rally, were paid in ‘‘cotton dresses and mantles of featherwork ; 
ornamented armor; vases of gold; gold dust, bands and bracelets ; 
crystal, gilt and varnished jars and goblets; bells, arms and uten- 
sils of copper; reams of paper; grain; fruits, copal, amber, coch- 
ineal, cacao, wild animals, birds, timber, lime, mats,”’ and a general 
medley in which the luxuries and necessaries of life were strangely 
mixed. It is not a little singular that silver, which since the 
conquest has become the leading staple export of Mexico, is not 
mentioned in the royal inventories which escaped destruction.1 

~The Mexican Mythology was a barbarous compound of spiritual- 
ism and idolatry. The Aztecs believed in and relied on a supreme 
God whom they called Teotl, “‘ God,” or Ipalnemoani— “he by 
whom we live,’’ and Tloque Nahuaque, —“‘ he who has all in him- 
self; ? while their counter-spirit or demon, who was ever the enemy 


1 Prescott, vol. 1, p. 39, and compare Lorenzana’s edition of Cortéz’s letters. 


AZTEC MYTHOLOGY. 107 


and seducer of their race bore the inauspicious title of Tlaleatecolo- 
totl, or the ‘“‘ Rational Owl.’? The dark, nocturnal deeds of this 
ominous bird, probably indicated its greater fitness for the typification 
of wickedness than of wisdom, of which the Greeks’had flatteringly 
made it the symbol, as the pet of Minerva. ‘These supreme spi- 
ritual essences were surrounded by a numerous court of satellites 
or lesser deities, who were perhaps the ministerial agents by which 
the behests of Teotl were performed. ‘There was Huitzilopotchth, 
the god of war, and Teoyaomiqui, his spouse, whose tender duties 
were confined to conducting the souls of warriors who perished in 
defence of their homes and shrines, into the “house of the sun,” 
which was the Aztec heaven. The image in the plate, presented 
in front and in profile, is alleged to represent this graceful fe- 
male, though it gives no idea of her holy offices. Tetzcatlipoca 
was the shining mirror, the god of providence, the soul of the 
world, creator of heaven and earth, and master of all things. 
Ometcuctli and Omecihuatl, a god and goddess presided over 
new born children, and, reigning in Paradise, benignantly granted 
the wishes of mortals. Cihuacohuatl, or, woman-serpent, was re- 
garded as the mother of human beings. ‘Tonatricli and Meztli were 
deifications of the sun and moon. Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc were 
deities of the air and of water, whilst Xiuhteuctli was the god of 
fire to whom the first morsel and the first draught at table were 
always devoted by the Aztecs. Mictlanteuctli and Joalteuctli 
were the gods of hell and night, while the generous goddess of the 
earth and grain who was worshipped by the Totonacos as an 
Indian Ceres, enjoyed the more euphonious title of Centeotl. Huit- 
zilopotchtli or Mexitli, the god of war, was an especial favorite with 
the Aztecs, for it was this divinity according to their legends who 
had led them from the north, and protected them during their long 
journey until they settled in the valley of Mexico. Nor did he 
desert them during the rise and progress of their nation. Addicted 
as they were to war, this deity was always invoked before battle 
and was recompensed for the victories he bestowed upon his fa- 
vorite people by bloody hecatombs of captives taken from the 
enemies of the empire. We have already spoken of this personage 
in the portion of this work which treats of the Spanish conquest of 
Mexico. 


If the Mexicans had their gods, so also had they their final 
abodes of blessedness and misery. Soldiers who were slain in 
conflict for their country or who perished in captivity, and the 


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TEOYAOMIQUI. (PROFILE.) 


110 IMAGE OF TEOYAOMIQUI. 


spirits of women who died in child-birth, went at once to the 
‘house of the sun”’ to enjoy a life of eternal pleasure. At dawn 
they hailed the rising orb with song and dances, and attended him 
to the meridian and his setting with music and festivity. The 
Aztecs believed that, after some years spent amid these pleasures, 
the beatified spirits of the departed were changed into clouds or 
birds of beautiful plumage, though they had power to ascend again 
whenever they pleased to the heaven they had left. , There was 
another place called Tlalocan the dwelling place of Tlaloc, the 
deity of water, which was also an Aztec elysium. It was the 
spirit-home of those who were drowned or struck by lightning, — 
of children sacrificed in honor of Tlaloc, — and of those who died 
of dropsy, tumors, or similar diseases. Last of all; was Mictlan, a 
gloomy hell of perfect darkness, in which, incessant night, unil- 
luminated by the twinkling of a single ray, was the only punish- 
ment, and the probable type of annihilation. 


The figure which is delineated in the plate representing 'Teoyao- 
miqui, is cut from a single block of basalt, and is nine feet high 
and five and a half broad. It is a horrid assemblage of hideous 
emblems. Claws, fangs, tusks, skulls and serpents, writhe and 
hang in garlands around the shapeless mass. Four open hands 
rest, apparently without any purpose, upon the bared breasts of a 
female. In profile, it 1s not unlike a squatting toad, whose glisten- 
ing eyes and broad mouth expand above the cincture of skulls 
and serpents. Seen in this direction it appears to have more shape 
and meaning than in front. On the top of the statue there is a 
hollow, which was probably used as the receptacle of offerings or 
incense during sacrifice. The bottom of this mass is also sculp- 
tured in relief, and as it will be observed in the plate, that there 
are projections of the body near the waist, it is supposed that this 
frightful idol was suspended by them aloft on pillars, so that its 
worshippers might pass beneath the massive stone. 


In 1790, this idol was found buried in the great square of 
Mexico, whence it was removed to the court of the university; but 
as the priests feared that it might again tempt the Indians to their 
ancient worship, it was interred until the year 1821, since which 
time it has been exhibited to the public. 


TEOCALLI—TWO KINDS OF SACRIFICE. 111 


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BOTTOM OF TEOYAOMIQUI. 


The reader who has accompanied us from the beginning of this 
volume and perused the history of the Spanish conquest, has 
doubtless become somewhat familiar with the great square of an- 
cient Tenochtitlan, its Teocalli, or pyramidal temple, and the 
bloody rites that were celebrated upon it, by the Aztec priests and 
princes. It served as a place of sacrifice, not only for the Indian 
victims of war, but streamed with the blood of the unfortunate 
Spaniards who fell into the power of the Mexicans when Cortéz 
was driven from the city. 

This Teocalli is said to have been completed in the year 1486, 
during the reign of the eighth sovereign of Tenochtitlan or Mexico, 
and occupied that portion of the present city upon which the 
cathedral stands and which is occupied by some of the adjacent 
streets and buildings. Its massive proportions and great extent 
may be estimated from the restoration of this edifice, which we 
have attempted to form from the best authorities, and have pre- 
sented in a plate in the preceding portion of this work. 


The Mexican theology indulged in two kinds of sacrifice, one 
15 


112 WHY THE AZTECS SACRIFICED THEIR PRISONERS. 


of which was an ordinary offering of a common victim, while the 
other, or gladiatorial sacrifice, was only used for captives of extra- 
ordinary courage and bravery. 

When we recollect the fact that the Aztec tribe was an intruder 
into the valley of Anahuac, and that it laid the foundations of its 
capital in the midst of enemies, we are not surprised that so hardy 
a race, from the northern hive, was both warlike in its habits and 
sanguinary in its religion. With a beautiful land around it on all 
sides, —level, fruitful, but incapable of easy defence, —it was 
forced to quit the solid earth and to build its stronghold in the 
waters of the lake. We can conceive no other reason for the 
selection of such a site. The eagle may have been seen on a rock 
amid the water devouring the serpent ; but we do not believe that 
this emblem of the will of heaven, in guiding the wanderers to 
their refuge in the lake of Tezcoco, was known to more than the 
leaders of the tribe until it became necessary to control the band by 
the interposition of a miracle. Something more was needed than 
mere argument, to plant a capital in the water, and, thus, we doubt 
not, that the singular omen, in which the modern arms of Mexico 
have originated, was contrived or invented by the priests or chiefs 
of the unsettled Aztecs. 

Surrounded by enemies, with nothing that they could strictly 
call their own, save the frail retreat among the reeds and rushes of 
their mimic Venice, it undoubtedly became necessary for the Aztecs 
to keep no captives taken in war. ‘Their gardens, like their town, 
were constructed upon the Chinampas, or floating beds of earth 
and wicker work, which were anchored in the lake. They could 
not venture, at any distance from its margin, to cultivate the fields. 
When they sallied from their city, they usually left it for the battle 
field; and, when they returned, it is probable that it seemed to 
them not only a propitiation of their gods, but a mercy to the vic- 
tims, to sacrifice their numerous captives, who if retained in idle- 
ness as prisoners would exact too large a body for their custody, 
or, if allowed to go at large, might rise against their victors, and, 
in either case, would soon consume the slender stores they were 
enabled to raise by their scant horticulture. In examining the his- 
tory of the Aztecs, and noticing the mixture of civilization which 
adorned their public and private life, and the barbarism which 
characterized their merciless religion, we have been convinced 
that the Aztec rite of sacrifice originated, in the infancy of the state 
in a national necessity, and, at length, under the influence of super- 
stition and policy, grew into an ordinance of faith and worship. 


COMMON SACRIFICE. 113 


The Common Sacririce, offered in the Aztec temples was 
performed by a chief priest, and six assistants. The principal 
flamen, habited in a red scapulary fringed with cotton, and 
crowned with a circlet of green and yellow plumes, assumed, for 
the occasion, the name of the deity to whom the offering was 
made. His acolytes,—clad in white robes embroidered with 
black; their hands covered with leathern thongs ; their foreheads 
filleted with parti-colored papers ; and their bodies dyed perfectly 
black, — prepared the victim for the altar, and having dressed him 
in the insignia of the deity to whom he was to be sacrificed, bore 
him through the town begging alms for the temple. He was then 
carried to the summit of the Teocalli, where four priests extended 
him across the curving surface of an arched stone placed on the 
sacrificial stone, while another held his head firmly beneath the 
yoke which is represented elsewhere. The chief priest, — the 
topiltzin or sacrificer, then stretched the breast of the victim 
tightly by bending his body back as far as possible, and, seizing 
the obsidian knife of sacrifice, cut a deep gash across the region 
of the captive’s heart. The extreme tension of the flesh and 
muscles, at once yielded beneath the blade, and the heart of the 
victim lay palpitating in the bloody gap. The sacrificer immedi- 
ately thrust his hand into the wound, and, tearing out the quivering 
vital, threw it at the feet of the idol, —ainserted it with a golden 
spoon into its mouth, — or, after offering it to the deity, consumed 
it in fire and preserved the sacred ashes with the greatest rever- 
ence. When these horrid rites were finished in the temple, the 
victim’s body was thrown from the top of the Teocall, whence it 
was borne to the dwelling of the individual who offered the sacri- 
fice, where it was eaten by himself and his friends, or, was devoted 
to feed the beasts in the royal menagerie. 

Numerous cruel sacrifices were practised by the Indians of 
Mexico, and especially among the Quauhtitlans, who, every four 
years, slew eight slaves or captives, in a manner almost too brutal 
for description. Sometimes the Aztecs contented themselves with 
other and more significant oblations; and flowers, fruits, bread, 
meat, copal, gums, quails, and rabbits, were offered on the altars 
of their gods. The priests, no doubt, approved these gifts far 
more than the tough flesh of captives or slaves! 

The GrapraTor1aL SacriFice was reserved, as we have already 
said for noble and courageous captives. According to Clavigero, 
a circular mass, three feet high, resembling a mill stone, was 
placed within the area of the great temple upon a raised terrace 

15 


114 GLADIATORIAL SACRIFICE — SACRIFICIAL STONE. 


about eight feet from the wall. The captive was bound to this stone 
by one foot, and was armed with a sword or maquahwitl and shield. 
In this position, and thus accoutred, he was attacked by a Mexican 
soldier or officer, who was better prepared with weapons for the dead- 
ly encounter. If the prisoner was conquered he was immediately 
borne to the altar of common sacrifice. If he overcame six assail- 
ants he was rewarded with life and liberty, and permitted once more 
to return to his native land with the spoils that had been taken from 
him in war. Clavigero supposes that for many years, twenty thou- 
sand victims were offered on the Mexican teocallis, in the ‘‘common 
sacrifice ;”’ and in the consecration of the great temple, sixty thousand 
persons were slain in order to baptise the pyramid with their blood. 


SACRIFICIAL STONE. 

An excellent idea of the sacrificial stone, will be obtained from 
the plates which are annexed. Neat and graceful ornaments, are 
raised in relief on the surface, and in the centre is a deep bowl, 
whence a canal or gutter leads to the edge of the cylinder. It is 
a mass of basaltic rock nine feet in diameter and three in height, 
and was found in the great square in 1790, near the site of the 
large teocalli or pyramid. On its sides are repeated, all round the 


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SIDE OF SACRIFICIAL STONE. 


AZTEC CALENDAR — WEEK, MONTH, YEAR, CYCLE. 115 


stone, the same two figures which are drawn in the second plate. 
They evidently represent a victor and a prisoner. ‘The conqueror 
is in the act of tearing the plumes from the crest of the vanquished, 
who bows beneath the blow and lowers his weapons. The simi- 
larity of these figures to some that are delineated in the first 
volume of Stephens’ Yucatan is remarkable. 

THe Aztec CaLenpar Stone, another monument of Mexican 
antiquity, was found in December, 1790, buried under ground in the 
great square of the capital. Like the idol image of Teoyaomiqul, 
and the sacrificial stone, it is carved from a mass of basalt, and is 
eleven feet eight inches in diameter, the depth of its circular edge 
being about seven and a half inches from the fractured square of 
rock out of which it was originally cut. It is supposed, from the 
fact that it was found beneath the pavement of the present plaza, 
that it was part of the fixtures of the great Teocalli of Tenoch- 
titlan, or that it was placed in some of the adjoining edifices or 
palaces surrounding the temple. It is now walled into the west 
side of the cathedral, and is a remarkable specimen of the talent 
of the Indians for sculpture, at the same time that its huge mass, 
together with those of the sacrificial stone and the idol Teoyao- 
miqui, denote the skill of their inventors in the movement of 
immense weights, without the aid of horses. 


The Aztecs calculated their civil year by the solar; they divided 
it into eighteen months of twenty days each, and added five 
complimentary days, as in Egypt, to make up the complete number 
of three hundred and sixty-five. After the last of these months 
the five nemontemi or ‘useless days’? were intercalated, and, 
belonging to no particular month, were regarded as unlucky, by the 
superstitious natives. Their week consisted of five days, the last 
of which was the market day; and a month was composed of four 
of these weeks. As the tropical year is composed of about six 
hours more than three hundred and sixty-five days, they lost a day 
every fourth year, which they supplied, not at the termination of 
that period, but at the expiration of their cycle of fifty-two years, 
when they intercalated the twelve days and a half that were lost. 
Thus it was found, at the period of the Spanish conquest, that 
their computation of time corresponded with the European, as 
calculated by the most accurate astronomers. 

At the end of the Aztec or Toltec cycle of fifty-two years, — 
for it is not accurately ascertained to which of the tribes the as- 
tronomical science of Tenochtitlan is to be attributed, — these 


116 PROCESSION OF THE NEW FIRE — SACRIFICE. 


primitive children of the New World believed that the world was in 
danger of instant destruction. Accordingly, its termination be- 
came one of their most serious and awful epochs, and they anx- 
iously awaited the moment when the sun would be blotted out from 
the heavens, and the globe itself once more resolved unto chaos. 
As the cycle ended in the winter, the season of the year, with its 
drearier sky and colder air, in the lofty regions of the valley, added 
to the gloom that fell upon the hearts of the people. On the 
last day of the fifty-two years, all the fires in temples and dwell- 
ings were extinguished, and the natives devoted themselves to 
fasting and prayer. They destroyed alike their *valuable and 
worthless wares; rent their garments; put out their lights, and 
hid themselves, for awhile in solitude. Pregnant women seem to 
have been the objects of their especial dread at this moment. 
They covered their faces with masks and imprisoned them 
securely, for they imagined, that on the occurrence of the grand 
and final catastrophe, these beings, who, elsewhere, are always 
the objects of peculiar interest and tenderness, would be suddenly 
turned into beasts of prey and would join the descending legions 
of demons, to revenge the injustice or cruelty of man. 

At dark, on the last dread evening,— as soon as the sun had 
set, as they imagined, forever, —a sad and solemn procession of 
priests and people marched forth from the city to a neighboring 
hill, to rekindle the ‘‘New Fire.”’ This mournful march was 
called the “‘ procession of the gods,’’ and was supposed to be their 
final departure from their temples and altars. 

As soon as the melancholy array reached the summit of the hill, 
it reposed in fearful anxiety until the Pleiades reached the zenith in 
the sky, whereupon the priests immediately began the sacrifice of 
a human victim, whose breast was. covered with a wooden shield, 
which the chief flamen kindled by friction. When the sufferer 
received the fatal stab from the sacrificial knife of obsidian, the 
machine was set in motion on his bosom, until the blaze had 
kindled. The anxious crowd stood round with fear and trembling. 
Silence reigned over nature and man. Nota word was uttered 
among the countless multitude that thronged the hill-sides and 
plains, whilst the priest performed his direful duty to the gods. 
At length, as the first sparks gleamed faintly from the whirling in- 
strument, low sobs and ejaculations were whispered among the 
eager masses. As the sparks kindled into a blaze, and the blaze 
into a flame, and the flaming shield and victim were cast together 
on a pile of combustibles which burst at once into the bright- 


FEAST OF THE NEW FIRE —CALENDAR. Py 


ness of a conflagration, the air was rent with the joyous 
shouts of the relieved and panic stricken Indians. Far and 
wide over the dusky crowds beamed the blaze like a star of prom- 
ise. Myriads of upturned faces greeted it from hills, mountains, 
temples, terraces, teocallis, house tops and city walls; and the 
prostrate multitudes hailed the emblem of light, life and fruition as 
a blessed omen of the restored favor of their gods and the preser- 
vation of the race for another cycle. At regular intervals, Indian 
couriers held aloft brands of resinous wood, by which they 
transmitted the ‘‘New Fire”? from hand to hand, from vil- 
lage to village, and town to town, throughout the Aztec empire. 
Light was radiated from the imperial or ecclesiastical centre of the 
realm. In every temple and dwelling it was rekindled, from the 
sacred source; and when the sun rose again on the following 
morning, the solemn procession of priests, princes and subjects, 
which had taken up its march from the capital on the preceding 
night, with solemn steps, returned once more to the abandoned 
capital, and restoring the gods to their altars, abandoned them- 
selves to joy and festivity in token of gratitude and relief from 
impending doom. 


AZTEC CALENDAR STONE. 
16 


118 AZTECS ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE. 


We have thought it proper and interesting to preface the 
description of the calendar stone by the preceding account of the 
Aztec festival of the New Fire, which illustrates the mingled ele- 
ments of science and superstition that so largely characterized the 
empire of Montezuma. The stone itself has engaged the atten- 
tion, for years, of numerous antiquarians in Mexico, Europe and 
America, but it has received from none so perfect a description, as 
from the late Albert Gallatin, who devoted a large portion of his 
declining years to the study of the ancient Mexican chronology and 
languages. In the first volume of the Transactions of the American 
Ethnological Society he has contributed an admirable summary of 
his investigations of the semi-civilized nations of Mexico, Yucatan 
and Central America, and from this we shall condense the por- 
tion which relates to this remarkable monument. 

Around the principal central figure, representing the sun, are 
delineated in a circular form the twenty days of the month; which 
are marked from 1 to 20, with figures in the plates, and, in this 
order, are the following: 


1 Cipacthi. 8 Ocelotl. 15 Mazatl. 

2 Xochitl. 9 Acatl. 16 Miquiztli. 
3 Quiahuitl. 10 Malinall. 17. Cohualt. 
4 Tecpatl. 11 Ozomatli. 18 Cuetzpalni. 
5 Olhn. 12 Itzeuinitli. 19 Calli. 

6 Cozcaquauhitli. 13 Atl. 20 Ehecatl. 

7 Quauhtli. 14 Tochtli. 


The triangular figure I, above the circle enclosing the emblem 
of the sun, denotes the beginning of the year. Around the 
circumference which bounds the symbols of the days and months 
are found the places of fifty-two small squares, of which only 
forty are actually visible, the other twelve being covered by 
the four principal rays of the sun marked R. These doubtless 
denote the cycle of 52 years; and each of these squares contains 
five small oblongs, making in all 260 for the 52 squares. They 
are presumed to represent the 260 days or the period of the twenty 
first series of thirteen days. All the portion, included between the 
outer circumference of these 260 days and the external zone, has 
not been decyphered accurately. The external zone consists, 
except at the extremities, of a symbol twenty times repeated, and 1s 
alleged by Gama, a Mexican who first described and attempted to 
interpret the stone, to represent the milky way. The waving lines 
connected with it are supposed by this writer to represent clouds, 
while others imagine them to be the symbols of the mountains: in 


AZTEC CALENDAR. 119 


which clouds and storms originated. These fanciful interpreta- 
tions, however, are unavailable in all scientific descriptions, and 
Mr. Gallatin supposes the figures to be altogether ornamental. 

The whole circle is divided into eight equal parts by the eight 
triangles R, which designate the rays of the sun. The intervals 
between these are each divided into two equal parts by the small 
circles indicated by the letter L. At the top of the vertical ray 
is found the hieroglyphic 13 Acatl, which shows that this stone 
applies to that year. It must be recollected that, although this 
Mexican calendar is in its arrangement the same for every year in 
the cycle, there:was a variation at the rate of a day for every four 
years, between the several years of the cycle and the corresponding 
solar years. Gama presumes that this date of 13 Acatl was se- 
» lected on account-of its being the twenty-sixth year of the cycle 
and equally removed from its beginning and termination. Beneath 
this hieroglyphic, in correct drawings of the stone — but not in 
that of Gama which has been reproduced by Mr. Gallatin — will 
be found, between the letters Y and G, the distinct sign of 2, Acatl, 
and the ray above it points to the sign of the year 13 Acatl, which 
coincides with our 21st of December, and is undoubtedly the 
hitherto undetermined date of the winter solstice in the Mexican 
calendar. ! 

The smaller interior circlg,-we have already said, contains the 
image of the sun, as usually painted by the Indians; and to it are 
united the four parallelograms, A, B, C, D, which are supposed by 
some writers to denote the four weeks into which the twenty days 
of the month were divided, but which contain the hieroglyphics, 
A, of 4 Ocelotl; B, of 4 Ehecatl; C, of 4 Quiahuitl; and D, of 4 
Atl. The lateral figures E and F, according to Gama denote 
claws, which are symbolical of two gréat Indian astrologers who 
were man and wife, and were represented as eagles or owls. 

The representations in these parallelograms, are believed to have 
originated in the Mexican fable of the suns, which will be here- 
after noticed. The Aztecs believed that this luminary had died 
four times, and that the one which at present lights the earth, was 
the fifth, but which nevertheless was doomed to destruction like the 
preceding orbs. From the creation, the first age or sun, lasted 676 
years, comprising 13 cycles, when the crops failed, men perished of 
famine and their bodies were consumed by the beasts of the field. 
This occurred in the year 1 Acatl, and on the day 4 Ocelotl, and 


* See Ethnological Trans. 1 vol., p. 96, and Am. Journal of Science and Arts, 
second series, vol. vii., p. 155. March No. for 1849. 


120 AZTEC CALENDAR. 


the ruin lasted for thirteen years. The next age and sun endured 
364 years or 7 cycles, and terminated in the year 1 Tecpatl on the 
day 4 Ehecatl, when hurricanes and rain desolated.the globe and 
men were metamorphosed into monkeys. The third age continued 
for 312 years, or 6 cycles, when fire or earthquakes rent the earth 
and human beings were converted into owls in the year 1 Tecpatl, 
on the day 4 Quiahuitl;— while the fourth age or sun lasted but 
for a single cycle of 52 years, and the world was destroyed by a 
flood, which either drowned the people or changed them into 
fishes, in the year 1 Calli, on the day 4 Atl. The four epochs of 
destruction are precisely the days typified by the hieroglyphics in 
the four parallelograms A, B, C and D. 

It will be seen by adding the several periods together that the 
Aztecs counted 1469 years from the creation of the world to the 
flood; yet there is an incongruity in this imaginary antediluvian 
history. If the fourth age had lasted only 52 years, it would have 
terminated in the year 1 Tecpatl instead of 1 Calli. Bustamante, 
the publisher and annotator of Gama, states that some authorities 
contend for only three antecedent periods, and that the present age 
is expected to end by fire. But Mr. Gallatin alleges that the 
four ages and five suns have been generally adopted, and are sus- 
tained by the ancient Aztec paintings contained in the Codex 
Vaticanus, plates 7 to 10. Like most of the Mexican antiquities, 
this branch of the Chronology is admitted to be exceedingly ob- 
scure, for it is asserted in the Appendix to Mr. Gallatin’s essay that 
the hieroglyphics annexed to these paintings, may be interpreted 
as giving to the four ages respectively the duration of either 682, 
530, 576, and 582, or of 5206, 2010, 4404, and 4008 years. 

‘¢ This would appear to be purely mythological, but the fact that 
all these imaginary antediluvian periods consist of a certain number 
of cycles, shows that this fable was invented subsequent to the time 
when the Mexicans had attained a knowledge of cycles, years and 
of the approximate length of the solar year. It seems, therefore, 
probable that the mythological representation is in some way con- 
nected with celestial phenomena, and it is accordingly, found that 
the days designated in the parallelograms A and C, as 4 Ocelotl, 
and 4 Quiahuitl, correspond respectively, (on the assumption that 
the first year of the cycle corresponds with the 31st of December, ) 
with the 13th of May and 17th of July, old style, or 22d of May 
and 26th of July, new style. And these two days 22d of May and 
26th of July, are those, according to Gama, of the transit of the sun 
by the zenith of the city of Mexico, which, by the observations of 


AZTEC CALENDAR. 121 


Humboldt, lies in 19° 25’ and 57” north latitude and in 101° 25! 
20” west longitude from Paris. The two other days 4 Ehecatl, 
and 4 Atl, do not correspond either in the first year of the cycle or 
in the year 13 Acatl, with any station of the sun or any other 
celestial phenomena. 

‘¢ There are three other hieroglyphics contained within the inte- 
rior circumference or representation of the sun, which indicate the 
dates of some celebrated feasts of the Aztecs. The three follow- 
ing indications or hieroglyphics are found immediately below the 
figure of the sun. The first of these, designated by the letter H, is 
placed between the parallelograms C and D, and consists of two 
squares of five oblongs each, indicating the Aztec numeral 10. 
The symbol of the day is not annexed, but the whole of the central 
figure is itself the sign Olin Tonatiah, and the hieroglyphic of the 
day Olin, as delineated on the stone among the other emblems of 
the days, is on a small scale and abbreviated form of that central 
and principal figure of the stone. The day designated here, is 
consequently, 10 Olin. Below this, and on each side respectively 
of the great vertical ray of the sun, are found the hieroglyphics of 
the days 1 Quiahuitl, and 2 Ozomatli. Of the last mentioned 
days, —10 Olin corresponds in the first year of the cycle, with the 
22d day of September, new style ;— 1 Quiahuitl with the 28th of 
March, and 2 Ozomatli with the 28th of June, as will be seen by 
the table at the end of this description of the calendar. 

‘; We find, therefore, delineated on this stone all the dates of the 
principal positions of the sun, and it thus appears that the Aztecs 
had ascertained with considerable precision the respective days of 
the two passages of the sun by the zenith of Mexico, of the two 
equinoxes, and of the summer and winter solstices. They haa 
therefore six different means of ascertaining and verifying the 
length of the solar year by counting the number of days elapsed 
till the sun returned to each of these six points, —the two solstices, 
the two equinoxes, and the two passages by the zenith.” ! 


1See Trans. Amer. Ethnol. Soc’y., vol. 1, p. 94. We should remark that the 
letters Q. Q., X. Z., P. P., S. Y., on the edge of the stone, denote holes cut 
into it, in which it is asserted that gnomons were placed whose shadows on the 
calendar converted it into a dial. 


ee 


122 MEXICAN ALMANAC, ACCORDING TO GAMA. 


MEXICAN ALMANAC, 


ACCORDING TO GAMA. 


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TABLE, ETC. 123 


In this perpetual almanac, each day in the year is desig- | Z ; Xiuhteuctli. 
nated by three characteristics derived from the combination | “* Q Tletl. 
of three series, viz.: That of the 20 days of the month, each | b. ‘Tecpatl. 
of which has a distinct name and hieroglyphic, from Cipactli| c. Xochitl. 
to Xochitl; and as these names are the same and in the|d. Cinteotl. 
same order in every month, the column in which they are|e. Miquiztli. 
set down answers for every month. The series of 13 days, | f. Atl. 
designed by its proper numeral from 1 to 13. And the se-| g. Tlazolteotl. 
ries of the 9 night companions, designated in this Table by | h. Tepeyolotli. 
the letters a, b,....h, i, viz.: i. Quiahuitl. 


Thus every day in the year is so distinguished that it can never be confounded 
with any other. The day 4 Ollin is the 17th day of both the first and the four- 
teenth month; but in the first instance it is distinguished by the letter h, and in the 
second by the letter g. If the characteristics of the 9th day of the 10th month be 
required, the Table shows that it is 7 Atl +; and thus also the 13th day of the ]6th. 
month (Quecholli) is shown to be 1 4catl g, and the 313th of the year. 

But it is only for the first year of the cycle (1 Tochtli) that the Mexican year cor- 
responds with ours in the manner stated in the Table. For, on account of our inter- 
calation of one day every bissextile year, the Mexican year receded, as compared 
with ours, one day every four years. This correction must therefore be made, 
whenever a comparison of the dates is wanted for any other than the first year of 
the cycle. The Mexican intercalation of 13 days at the end of the cycle of 52 
years made again the first year of every cycle correspond with our year, in the 
manner stated in the Table. 

Another correction is again necessary, when we have a Tescocan instead of a 
Mexican date. For the first year of the Mexican cycle was 1 Tochtli, and that of 
Tescoco was 1 Acatl; which caused a difference now of three, now of ten days in 
their calendars, which in every other respect were the same. Both corrections 
appear in the second Table.—Trans. Amer. Ethnol. Soc., vol. i, p. 114. Tables C’. 
and C? 


Niesxican Julian year. 
A.D. Old Style. New Style. 
year: Mexico. | Tescoco. || Mexico. | Tescoco. | 
Ist year of Mexic’n Cycle|| 1 Tochtli |1454)Dec. 31/Dec. 21\Jan. 9/Dec. 30, 
Bissextile year...... 3 Tecpatl | 1456 30 20 8 29 | 
Oo See Gree a do. | |1460 29 19, 7 28) | 
JC Gos Capea De do.) 1464 28] ae 618 6 27), 
Tescocan inter’n 13 days * 
Ist year of Tesco’n Cycle|| 1 Acatl | 1467 28 31 6)Jan. 9) 
Bissextile year....... 2 Tecpatl | 1468 27 30 5) 8 
SOC ASI nes Sire Odors 1472 26 29 4 7 
GOiot eset 5. wee LO do: 1476 25 28 3 6 
BO iicpe dfs:0)of0. 6s aNe-« 1 do. {1480 24 27 2 5 
CO ano 5 do. |1484 . 23 26 1 4 
ADs sckes «' Pees io) dO.) 1488 22 25)|Dec. 31 3 
oS SEO eee 13 do. |1492 21 24 30 2 
SP rare rte oles se) <i0 « 4 do. |1496 20 23 29 1 
DE eiarete fe Ulo.cisjars's « 8 do. {1500 19 22 28|Dec. 31 
GD Te od) glee. 12.do. {1504 18 21 27 30 
Mexican intercal.13 days | 
Ist year of Mexic’n Cycle|| 1 Tochtli | 1506 31 Q1|Jan. 9 30 
Bissextile year......|| 3 Tecpatl | 1508 30 20 8 29 
GBs saetenieice Mei’, do. \ 11512 29 19 7 28 
MOG sjareiee yer steno Piadon #1516 28 18 6 27 
Tescocan inter’n 13 days 
Ist year Tesco’n Cycle 
Be Mee 1 Acatl [1519 98 31 6\Jan. 9 
Bissextile year... . << 2 Tecpatl | 1520 27 30 5 8 
Capture of Mexico...|| 3 Calli {1521 27 30 5 8} 


124 


OMAP WNW — 


MEXICAN CYCLE OF FIFTY-TWO YEARS. 


MEXICAN CYCLE OF 52 YEARS. 


Ist year. 


Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 


14th year. 


Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
10 Tecpatl 10 
11 Calli 11 
12 Tochtli 12 
13 Acatl 5} 


WO OI Oe WWE 
OSOAIDULPwWWEH 


See Ist vol. Ethnol. Trans. 


27th year. 


Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 10 
Tochtli 11 
Acatl 12 
Tecpatl 13 


WOMAIANSWWe 


ut antea page 63. 


40th year. 


Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 
Tochtli 
Acatl 
Tecpatl 
Calli 


NEW SPAIN 


UNDER THE VICEROYAL GOVERNMENT. 


— 15380 — 1809. 


fb OpO ied: |. 


CHAP 2a Rit. 
INTRODUCTORY. 


COLONIAL SYSTEM— EARLY GRANTS OF POWER TO RULERS IN 
MEXICO, BY THE EMPEROR CHARLES V—ABUSE OF IT. — 


COUNCIL OF THE INDIES — LAWS. — ROYAL AUDIENCES — CA- 
BILDOS — FUEROS. — RELATIVE POSITIONS OF SPANIARDS AND 
CREOLES.—SCHEME OF SPANISH COLONIAL TRADE. — RE- 


STRICTIONS ON TRADE. — ALCABALA — TAXES — PAPAL BULLS. 
— BULLS DE CRUZADA — DE DEFUNTOS — OF COMPOSITION. — 
POWER OF THE CHURCH — ITS PROPERTY — INQUISITION. — THE 
ACTS OF THE INQUISITION — REPARTIMIENTOS. — INDIANS — 
AGRICULTURISTS — MINERS — MITA. — EXCUSES FOR MALAD- 
MINISTRATION. 


BrForE we present the reader a brief sketch of the viceroyal 
government of New Spain, it may, in no small degree, contribute 
to the elucidation of this period if we review the Spanish colonial 
system that prevailed from the conquest to the revolution which 
resulted in independence. 

As soon as the Spaniards had plundered the wealth accumulated 
by the Incas and the Aztecs in the semi-civilized empires of 
Mexico and Peru, they turned their attention to the government 
of the colonies which they saw springing up as if by enchantment. 
The allurements of gold and the enticements of a prolific soil, 
under delicious skies, had not yet ceased to inflame the ardent 
national fancy of Spain, so that an eager immigration escaped by 
every route to America. An almost regal and absolute power was 
vested by special grants from the king in the persons who were 
despatched from his court to found the first governments in the 
New World. But this authority was so abused by some of the 
ministerial agents that Charles V. took an early occasion to curb 


128 COUNCIL OF THE INDIES — LAWS. 


their power and diminish their original privileges. The Indians 
who had been divided with the lands among the conquerors by 
the slavish system of repartimientos, were declared to be the 
king’s subjects. In 1537 the Pope issued a decree declaring the 
aborigines to be ‘“‘really and truly men,’?—“ipsos veros homi- 
nes,’’ —who were capable of receiving the christian faith. 

The sovereign was ever regarded from the first as the direct 
fountain of all authority throughout Spanish America. All his 
provinces were governed as colonies and and his word was their 
supreme law. In 1511, Ferdinand created a new governmental 
department for the control of his American subjects, denominated 
the Counci, or THE InpiEs, but it was not fully organized until 
the reign of Charles the Fifth in 1524. The Recopilacion de las 
leyes de las Indias declared that this council should have supreme 
jurisdiction over all the Western Indies pertaining to the Spanish 
crown, which had been discovered, at that period, or which might 
thereafter be discovered ;—that this jurisdiction should extend 
over all their interests and affairs ; and, moreover, that the council, 
with the royal assent, should make all laws and ordinances, neces- 
sary for the welfare of those provinces.! This Council of the 
Indies consisted of a president, who was the king, four secretaries, 
and twenty-two counsellors, and the members were usually chosen 
from among those who had either been viceroys or held high 
stations abroad. It appointed all the officers employed in America 
in compliance with the nomination of the crown, and every one 
was responsible to it for his conduct. As soon as this political 
and legislative machine was created it began its scheme of law 
making for the colonies, not, however, upon principles of national 
right, but according to such dictates of expediency or profit as 
might accrue to the Spaniards. From time to time they were 
apprised of the wants of the colonists, but far separated as they 
were from the subject of their legislation, they naturally committed 
many errors in regard to a people with whom they had not the 
sympathy of a common country, and common social or industrial 
interests. They legislated either for abstractions or with the selfish 
view of working the colonies for the advantage of the Spanish 
crown rather than for the gradual and beautiful development of 
American capabilities. The mines of this continent first attracted 
the attention of Spain, and the prevailing principle of the scheme 
adopted in regard to them, was, that the mother country should 


1 Recop. de las leyes, lib. 2, title 2, ley 2. 


ROYAL AUDIENCES — CABILDOS — FUEROS. 129 


produce the necessaries or luxuries of life for her colonial vassals, 
whilst they recompensed their parent with a bountiful revenue of 
gold and silver. 

The bungling, blind, and often corrupt legislation of the Council 
of the Indies soon filled its records with masses of contradictory 
and useless laws, so that although there were many beneficent acts, 
designed especially for the comfort of the Indians, the administra- 
tion of so confused a system became almost incompatible with 
justice. If the source of law was vicious its administration was 
not less impure. The principal courts of justice were the Aupr- 
ENCIAS REALES, or Royal Audiences. In addition to the presi- 
dent, —who was the Viceroy, or Captain General,—the audiencia 
or court was composed of a regent, three judges, two jfiscales or 
attorneys, (one for civil and the other for criminal cases) a reporter, 
and an alguazil, or constable. ‘The members of these courts were 
appointed by the king himself, and, being almost without excep- 
tion, natives of old Spain, they possessed but few sympathies for 
the colonists. 

After the Royal Audiences, came the Cartupos whose members, 
consisting of regidores and other persons appointed by the king, 
and of two alcaldes annually elected by the regidores from among 
the people, — constituted a municipal body in almost every town 
or village of importance. These cabildos had no legislative juris- 
diction, but superintended the execution of the laws within their 
districts and regulated all minor local matters. The office of 
regidor was a regular matter of bargain and sale; and, as the 
regidores subsequently elected the alcaldes, it will be seen that 
this admitted of great corruption, and tended to augment the 
direct oppression of the masses subjected to their jurisdiction. It 
was an instrument to increase the wealth and strengthen the tyran- 
nical power of the rulers. 

These ill regulated awdiencias and cabildos, were, in themselves, 
capable of destroying all principles of just harmony, and were 
sufficient to corrupt the laws both in their enactment and adminis- 
tration. But all men were not equal before these tribunals. A 
system of fueros or privileges, opposed innumerable obstacles. 
These were the privileges of corporate bodies and of the profes- 
sions;of the clergy, called public or common; and of the monks, 
canons, inquisitions, college, and universities; the privileges of 
persons employed in the royal revenue service; the general privi- 
leges of the military, which were extended also to the militia, and 
the especial privileges of the marines, of engineers, and of the 


130 RELATIVE POSITION OF SPANIARDS AND CREOLES. 


artillery. An individual enjoying any of these privileges was 
elevated above the civil authority, and, whether as plaintiff or 
defendant, was subject only to the chief of the body to which he 
belonged, both in civil and criminal cases. So great a number of 
jurisdictions created an extricable labyrinth, which, by keeping 
up a ceaseless conflict between the chiefs in regard to the extent 
of their powers, stimulated each one to sustain his own authority 
at all hazards, and, with such resoluteness as to employ even 
force to gain his purpose. . Bribery, intrigue, delay, denial of jus- 
tice, outrage, ruin, were the natural results of such a system of 
complicated irresponsibility ; and consequently it is not singular 
to find even now in Mexico and South America large masses of 
people who are utterly ignorant of the true principles upon which 
justice should be administered or laws enacted for its immaculate 
protection. ‘The manifesto of independence issued by the Buenos 
Ayrean Congress in 1816, declares that all public offices be- 
long exclusively to the Spaniards; and although the Ameri- 
cans were equally entitled to them by the laws, they were 
appointed only in rare instances, and even then, not without satia- 
ting the cupidity of the court by enormous sums of money. Of 
one hundred and seventy viceroys who governed on this continent 
but four were Americans; and of six hundred and ten Captains 
General and Governors, all but fourteen were natives of old 
Spain! Thus it is evident that not only were the Spanish laws 
bad in their origin, but the administrative system under which 
they operated denied natives of America in almost all cases the 
possibility of self government. 

The evil schemes of Spain did not stop, however, with the 
enactment of laws, or their administration. The precious metals 
had originally tempted her, as we have already seen, and she did 
not fail to build up a commercial system which was at once to 
bind the colonists forever to the mines, whilst it enriched and 
excited her industry at home in arts, manufactures, agriculture, 
and navigation. As the Atlantic rolled between the old world and 
the new, America was excluded from all easy or direct means of 
intercourse with other states of Europe, especially at a period 
when the naval power of Spain was important, and frequent wars 
made the navigation of foreign merchantmen or smugglers some- 
what dangerous in the face of her cruisers. Spain therefore inter- 
dicted all commercial intercourse between her colonies and the rest 


' Mendez, Observaciones sobre les leyes de Indias y sobre la independencia de 
America. London, 1823. p. 174. 


SCHEME OF SPANISH COLONIAL TRADE. 131 


of the world, thus maintaining a strict monopoly of trade in her 
own hands. All imports and exports were conveyed in Spanish 
bottoms, nor was any vessel permitted to sail for Vera Cruz or 
Porto Bello, her only two authorized American ports, except from 
Seville, until the year 1720, when the trade was removed to Cadiz 
as a more convenient outlet. It was not until the War of the 
Succession that the trade of Peru was opened, and, even then, only 
to the French. By the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, Great Britain 
with the astento, or contract for the supply of slaves, obtained 
a direct participation in the American trade, by virtue of a permis- 
sion granted her to send a vessel of five hundred tons annually to 
the fair at Porto Bello. This privilege ceased with the partial 
hostilities in 1737, but Spain found herself compelled, on the 
restoration of peace in 1739, to make some provision for meeting 
the additional demand which the comparatively free communica- 
tion with Europe had created. Licenses were granted, with this 
view, to vessels called register-ships, which were chartered during 
the intervals between the usual periods for the departure of the 
galleons. In 1764, a further improvement was made by the estab- 
lishment of monthly packets to Havana, Porto Rico and Buenos 
Ayres, which were allowed to carry out half cargoes of goods. 
This was followed in 1774, by the removal of the interdict upon 
the intercourse of the colonies with each other; and, this again, 
in 1778, under what is termed a decree of free trade, by which 
seven of the principal ports of the peninsula were allowed to carry 
on a direct intercourse with Buenos Ayres and the South Sea.! 
Up to the period when these civilized modifications of the original 
interdict were made, the colonists were forbidden to trade either 
with foreigners or with each other’s states, under any pretext 
whatever. The penalty of disobedience and detection was death. 

Having thus enacted that the sole vehicle of colonial commerce 
should be Spanish, the next effort of the paternal government was 
to make the things it conveyed Spanish also. As an adjunct in 
this system of imposition, the laws of the Indies prohibited the 
manufacture or cultivation in the colonies, of all those articles 
which could be manufactured or produced in Spain. Factories 
were therefore inhibited, and foreign articles were permitted to 
enter the viceroyalties, direct from Spain alone, where they were, 
of course, subjected to duty previous to re-exportation. But these 
foreign products were not allowed to be imported in unstinted 
quantities. Spain fixed both the amount and the price ; so that by 


1'Ward’s Mexico in 1827, vol. 1, p. 116. 


139 RESTRICTIONS ON TRADE. 


extorting, ultimately, from the purchaser, the government was a 
gainer in charges, profits and duties; whilst the merchants of 
Cadiz and Seville, who enjoyed the monopoly of trade, were ena- 
bled to affix any valuation they pleased to their commodities. The 
ingenuity of the Spaniards in contriving methods to exact the 
utmost farthing from their submissive colonists, is not a little 
remarkable. ‘‘ They took advantage of the wants of the settlers, 
and were, at one time, sparing in their supplies, so that the price 
might be enhanced, whilst, at another, they sent goods of poor 
quality, at a rate much above their value, because it was known 
they must be purchased. It was a standing practice to despatch 
European commodities in such small quantities as to quicken the © 
competition of purchasers and command an exorbitant profit. In 
the most flourishing period of the trade of Seville, the whole 
amount of shipping employed was less than twenty-eight thou- 
sand tons, and many of the vessels made no more than annual 
voyages. ‘The evident motive on the part of the crown for limit- 
ing the supply was, that the same amount of revenue could be 
more easily levied, and collected with more certainty as well as 
despatch, on a small than on a large amount of goods.’”! 

Whilst the commerce of Spain was thus burdened by enormous 
impositions, the colonies were of course cramped in all their ener- 
gies. ‘There could be no independent action of trade, manufacture, 
or even agriculture, under such a system. 

America, —vunder the tropics and in the temperate regions, 
abounding in a prolific soil,— was not allowed to cultivate the 
grape or the olive, whilst, even some kinds of provisions which 
could easily have been produced on this continent were imported 
from Spain. 

Such were some of the selfish and unnatural means by which 
the Council of the Indies, — whose laws have been styled, by 
some writers, beneficent — sought to drain America of her wealth, 
whilst they created a market for Spain. This was the external 
code of oppression; but the internal system of this continent, 
which was justified and enacted by the same council, was not less 
odious. ‘Taxation, without representation or self government, was 
the foundation of our revolt; yet, the patient colonies of Spain 
were forced to bear it from the beginning of their career, so that 
the idea of freedom, either of opmion or of impost, never entered 
the minds of an American creole. 

Duties, taxes, and tithes were the vexatious instruments of royal 


1 North American Review, vol. xix p. 117. 


ALCABALA — TAXES — PAPAL BULLS. 133 


plunder. The alcabala, an impost upon all purchases and sales, 
including even the smallest transactions, was perhaps the most 
burthensome. ‘‘Every species of merchandise, whenever it passed 
from one owner to another, was subject to a new tax; and 
merchants, shopkeepers and small dealers, were obliged to report 
‘the amount of their purchases and sales under oath.”” From the 
acquisition of an estate, to the simple sale of butter, eggs, o1 
vegetables in market, all contracts and persons were subject to 
this tax, except travellers, clergymen and paupers. Independently 
of the destruction of trade, which must always ensue from such a 
system, the reader will at once observe the temptations to vice 
opened by it. The natural spirit of gain tempts a dealer to cheat 
an oppressive government by every means in his power. It 
is therefore not wonderful to find the country filled with con- 
trabandists, and the towns with dishonest tradesmen. Men who 
defraud in acts, will lie in words, nor will they hesitate to con- 
ceal their infamy under the sanction of an oath. Thus was it 
that the oppressive taxation of Spain became the direct instrument 
of popular corruption, and, by extending imposts to the minutest 
ramifications of society, it made the people smugglers, cheats, and 
perjurers. In addition to the alcabala, there were transit duties 
through the country, under which, it has been alleged, that Euro- 
pean articles were sometimes taxed thirty times before they reached 
their consumer. The king had his royal fifth of all the gold and 
silver, and his monopolies of tobacco, salt and gunpowder. He 
- often openly vended the colonial offices, both civil and ecclesias- 
tical. He stamped’ paper, and derived a revenue from its sale. 
He affixed a poll tax on every Indian; and, finally, by the most 
infamous of all impositions, he derived an extensive revenue from 
the religious superstition of the people. It was not enough to tax 
the necessaries and luxuries of life, —things actually in existence 
and tangible, — but, through a refined alchemy of political inven- 
tion, he managed to coin even the superstitions of the people, and 
add to the royal income by the sale of ‘“ Bulls de cruzada,’? — 
“¢ Bulls de defuntos,’? —‘‘ Bulls for eating milk and eggs during 
lent,’ —and ‘ Bulls of composition.” Bales upon bales of these 
badly printed licenses were sent out from Spain and sold by priests 
under the direction of a commissary. The villany of this scheme 
may be more evident if we detain the reader a moment in order to 
describe the character of these spiritual licenses. Whoever pos- 
sessed a “ Bull de cruzada” might be absolved from all crimes 
except heresy; nor, could he be suspected even of so deadly a sin, 
18 


1384 BULLS DE CRUZADA —DE DEFUNTOS — OF COMPOSITION. 


as long as this talismanic paper was in his possession. Besides 
this, it exempted him from many of the rigorous fasts of the 
church ; while two of them, of course, possessed double the virtue 
of one. The “Bull for the dead” was a needful passport for a 
sinner’s soul from purgatory. There was no escape without it 
from the satanic police, and the poor and ignorant classes suffered 
all the pains of their miserable friends who had gone to the other 
world, until they were able to purchase the inestimable ticket of 
release. But of all these wretched impostures, the ‘‘ Bull of com- 
position’? was, probably, the most shameful as well as dangerous. 
It ‘released persons who had stolen goods from the obligation to 
restore them to the owner, provided the thief had not been moved 
to commit his crime in consequence of a belief that he might 
escape from its sin by subsequently purchasing the immaculate 
‘Bull.’’”? Nor were these all the virtues of this miraculous docu- 
ment. It had the power to “correct the moral offence of false 
weights and measures; tricks and frauds in trade; all the obliqui- 
ties of principle and conduct by which swindlers rob honest folks 
of their property; and, finally, whilst it converted stolen articles 
into the lawful property of the thief, it also assured to purchasers 
the absolute ownership of whatever they obtained by modes that 
ought to have brought them to the gallows. ‘The price of these 
Bulls depended on the amount of goods stolen; but it is just to 
add, that only fifty of them could be taken by the same person in 
a year.”’ 1! 

These disgusting details might suffice to show the student ho 
greatly America was oppressed and corrupted by the Spanish 
government; yet we regret that there are other important matters 
of misrule which we are not authorised to pass by unnoticed. 
Thus far we have considered the direct administration and taxing 
power of the king and Council of the Indies; we must now turn 
to the despotism exercised over the mind as well as the body of 
the creoles. 

The holy church held all its appointments directly from the 
king, though the pope enjoyed the privilege of nomination ; conse- 
quently the actual influence and power of the Hispano-American 
church, rested in the sovereign. The Recopilacion de las leyes 
expressly prohibits the erection of cathedrals, parish churches, 
monasteries, hospitals, native chapels, or other pious or religious 


'See Pazo’s letters on South America, pages 88, 89, North American Review, 
art. antec., pages 186 and 187, et Depons. 


be. : 


POWER OF THE CHURCH — ITS PROPERTY — INQUISITION. 135 


edifices, without the express license of the monarch.! As all the 
ecclesiastical revenues went to him, his power and patronage were 
immense. The religious jurisdiction of the church tribunals 
extended to monasteries, priests, donations, or legacies for sacred 
purposes, tithes, marriages, and all spiritual concerns. The 
Jueros of the clergy have been already alluded to. ‘‘ Instead of 
any restraint on the claims of the ecclesiastics,” says Dr. Robert- 
son, “‘the inconsistent zeal of the Spanish legislators admitted 
them into America to their full extent, and, at once imposed on 
the Spanish colonies a burden which is in no slight degree oppres- 
sive to society in its most improved state. As early as 1501 the 
payment of ¢zthes as it was called, in the colonies was enjoined, 
and the mode of it regulated by law. Every article of primary 
_necessity towards which the attention of settlers must naturally 
be turned was submitted to that grievous exaction. Nor were the 
demands of the clergy confined to articles of simple and easy 
culture. Its more artificial and operose productions, such as 
sugar, indigo, and cochineal, were declared to be titheable, and, 
in this manner, the planter’s industry was taxed in every stage of 
its progress from its rudest essay to its highest improvement.” ? 
Thus it is that even now, after all the desolating revolutions that 
have occurred, we see the wealth of the Mexican church so exor- 
bitantly exceeding that of the richest lay proprietors. The clergy 
readily became the royal agents in this scheme of aggrandizement ; 
convent after convent was built; estate after estate was added to 
their possessions; dollar after dollar, and diamond after diamond 
were cast into their gorged treasuries, until their present accumu- 
lations are estimated at a sum not far beneath one hundred 
millions.? The monasteries of the Dominicans and Carmelites 
possess immense riches, chiefly in real estate both in town and 
country ; whilst the convents of nuns in the city of Mexico, — 
especially those of Concepcion, Encarnacion and Santa Terasa, — 
are owners of three-fourths of the private houses in the capital, and 
proportionably, of property in the different states of the republic. 4 
Wherever the church of Rome obtained a foothold in the six- 
teenth century the Hoty Inquisirion was not long in asserting 
and establishing its power. Unfortunately for the zealots of this 
monastic tribunal, the ignorance of the Indians did not permit 


' Recopilacion, lib. i, Tit. vi, Ley 2, North American Review, art. antec. p. 189. 
* Robertson’s Hist. of Amer. ; Zavala Hist. Revo. of Mexico. 

3 Otero, Cuestion social, pages 38, 39, 43. 

4 Zavala Hist. Revo. de Mexico, pages 16, 17, vol. 1. 


136 THE ACTS OF THE INQUISITION — REPARTIMIENTOS. 


them to wander into the mazes of heresy, so that the Dominican 


monks found but slender employment for their cruel skill. The 


poor aborigines were hardly worth the trouble of persecution, for 


the conquerors had already plundered them, and, unfortunately, the 


Jews did not emigrate to the wilds of America. The inquisition, 
however, could not restrain its natural love of labor, so, that, 
diverting its attention from the bodies of its victims it devoted 
itself, with the occasional recreation of an auto da fe, to the 
spiritual guardianship of Spanish and Indian intellects. Educa- 
tion was of course modified and repressed by such baneful influ- 
ences. Men dared neither learn nor read, except what was 
selected for them by the monks. At the end of the eighteenth 
century there were but three presses in Spanish America, — one 
in Mexico, one in Lima, and one which belonged to the Jesuits at 
Cordova; but these presses were designed for the use of the 
government alone in the dissemination of its decrees. The eye of 
the inquisition was of course jealously directed to all publications. 
Booksellers were bound to furnish the Holy Fathers annually with 
a list of their merchandise, and the fraternity was empowered to 
enter wheresoever it pleased, to seek and seize prohibited litera- 
ture. Luther, Calvin, Vattel, Montesquieu, Puffendorff, Robertson, 
Addison, and even the Roman Catholic Fenelon, were all pro- 
scribed. ‘The inquisition was the great censor of the press, and 
nothing was submitted to the people unless it had passed the fiery 
ordeal of the holy office. It was quite enough for a book to be 
wise, classical, or progressive, to subject it to condemnation. 
Even viceroys and governors were forbidden to license the publi- 
cation of a work unless the inquisition sanctioned it; and we have 
seen volumes in Mexico, still kept as curiosities in private libraries, 
out of which pages were torn and passages obliterated by the 
Holy Fathers, before they were permitted to be sold. ! 

Inasmuch as the Indians formed the great bulk of Hispano- 
American population, the king, of course, soon after the discovery, 
directed his attention to their capabilities for labor. We have seen 
in a previous part of this chapter that by a system of repartimientos 
they were divided among the conquerors and made vassals of the 
land holders, although always kept distinct from the negroes who 
were afterwards imported from Africa. Although the Emperor 
Charles V., enacted a number of mild laws for the amelioration of 
their fate, their condition seems, nevertheless, to have been very 
little improved, — according to our personal observation, — even to 


1See Zavala, vol. 1, p. 52. 


INDIANS — AGRICULTURISTS — MINERS — MITA. 137 


the present day. We have noticed that a capitation tax was levied 
on every Indian, and that it varied in different parts of Spanish 
America, from four to fifteen dollars, according to the ability of the 
Indians. They were likewise doomed to labor on the public 
works, as well as to cultivate the soil for the general benefit of the 
country, whilst by the imposition of the mita they were forced to 
toil in the mines under a rigorous and debasing system which the 
world believed altogether unequalled in mineral districts until the 
British parliamentary reports of a few years past disclosed the fact, 
that even in England, men and women are sometimes degraded into 
beasts of burden in the mines whose galleries traverse in every 
direction the bowels of that proud kingdom.! Toils and suffering 
were the natural conditions of the poor Indian in America after the 
conquest, and it might have been supposed that the plain dictates 
of humanity would make the Spaniards content with the labor of 
their serfs, without attempting afterwards, to rob them of the wages 
of such ignominious labor. But even in this, the Spanish inge- 
nuity and avarice were not to be foiled, for the corregidores in the 
towns and villages, to whom were granted the minor monopolies 
of almost all the necessaries of life, made this a pretext of obliging 
the Indians to purchase what they required at the prices they chose 
to affix to their goods. Monopoly —was the order of the day in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its oppressions extended 
through all ranks, and its grasping advantages were eagerly seized 
by every magistrate from the alguazil to the viceroy. The people 
groaned, but paid the burthensome exaction, whilst the relentless 
officer, hardened by the contemplation of misery, and the constant 
commission of legalized robbery, only became more watchful, sa- 
gacious and grinding in proportion as he discovered how much the 
down-trodden masses could bear. Benevolent viceroys and liberal 
_ kings, frequently interposed to prevent the continuance of these un- 
just acts, but they were unable to cope with the numerous officials 
who performed all the minor ministerial duties throughout the colony. 
These inferior agents, in a new and partially unorganized country, 
had every advantage in their favor over the central authorities in the 
capital. The poorer Spaniards and the Indian serfs had no means 
of making their complaints heard in the palace. ‘There was no 
press or public opinion to give voice to the sorrows of the masses, 
and personal fear often silenced the few who might have reached 
the ear of merciful and just rulers. At court, the rich, powerful 


' See British Parliamentary Report on the condition of the miners and mining 
districts 


138 EXCUSES FOR MALADMINISTRATION. 


and influential miners or land holders, always discovered pliant 
tools who were ready by intrigue and corruption to smother the cry 
of discontent, or to account plausibly for the murmurs, which upon 
extraordinary occasions, burst through all restraints until they 
reached either the Audiencia or the representative of the sovereign. 
These slender excuses may, in some degree, account for and pal- 
liate the maladministration of Spanish America from the middle of 
the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. 


The ensuing chapters of this book contain the annals of New 
Spain from the foundation of the viceroyal system to the beginning 
of the revolution that grew out of its corruptions. The materials 
for this portion of Mexican history are exceedingly scant. During 
the jealous despotism and ecclesiastical vigilance of old Spanish 
rule, and the anarchy of modern miscalled republicanism, few 
authors have ventured to penetrate the gloom of this mysterious 
period. The Jesuit Father Cavo, and Don Carlos Maria Busta- 
mante have alone essayed to narrate, consecutively, the events of 
the viceroyalty ; and although no student of the past is attracted by 
their crude and careless style, yet we may confidently rely on the 
characteristic facts detailed in their tedious work. 4 


1 “Los Tres Siglos de Mejico, durante el Gobierno Espaiiol, ”’ 1521 to 1766, 
written by Father Andres Cavo, of the Society of Jesus; 1767 to 1821, written by 
Don Carlos Maria Bustamante. 


CHAPTER: Il. 
1530 — 1551. 


FOUNDING OF THE VICEROYALTY OF NEW SPAIN.—NEW AUDIENCIA 
— FUENLEAL — MENDOZA. — EARLY ACTS OF THE FIRST VICE- 
ROY — COINAGE. — REBELLION IN JALISCO—VICEROY SUP- 
PRESSES IT. — COUNCIL OF THE INDIES ON REPARTIMIENTOS. — 
INDIAN SERVITUDE. — QUIVARA — EXPEDITIONS OF CORONADO 
AND ALARCON. — PEST IN 1546 — REVOLUTION — COUNCIL OF 
BISHOPS. —- MINES — ZAPOTECS REVOLT — MENDOZA REMOVED 
TO PERU. 


Antonio DE Mrnpoza, Count or TENDILLA, 
I. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 


1530 — 1551. 


In the year 1530, the accusations received in Spain against 
Nuno de Guzman, and the ordores Matinezo and Delgadillo, who at 
that period ruled in Mexico under royal authority, were not only 
so frequent, but of so terrible a character, that Charles V., resolved 
to adopt some means of remedying the evils*of his transatlantic 
subjects. He was about to depart from Spain however, for Flan- 
ders, and charged the Empress to adopt the necessary measures 
for this purpose during his absence. This enlightened personage, 
perceiving the difficulty of ruling so distant, extended and rich an 
appendage of the Spanish crown, by inferior officials alone, wisely 
determined to establish a VicrRoyatty in New Spain. It was a 
measure which seemed to place the two worlds in more loyal 
affinity. The vice king, it was supposed, would be the impersona- 
tion of sovereignty, the direct representative of the national head, 
and would always form an independent and truthful channel of 
information. His position set him, eminently, above the crowd of 
adventurers who were tempted to the shores of America; and, re- 
movable at the royal pleasure, as well as selected from among 
those Spanish nobles whose fidelity to the crown was unquestion- 
able, there was but little danger that even the most ambitious 
subject would ever be tempted to alienate from the Emperor the 
affection and services either of emigrants or natives. 


140 NEW AUDIENCIA — FUENLEAL — MENDOZA. 


The Empress, in fulfilling the wishes of her august spouse, at 
first fixed her eyes upon the Count de Oropesa and on the Marshal 
de Fromesta, as persons well fitted to undertake the difficult charge 
of founding the Mexican viceroyalty. But these individuals, upon 
various pretexts, declined the mission, which was next tendered to 
Don Manuel Benavides, whose exorbitant demands for money and 
authority, finally induced the sovereign to withdraw her nomina- 
tion. Finally, she resolved to despatch Don Antonio de Mendoza, 
Count of Tendilla, one of her chamberlains, who requested only 
sufficient time to regulate his private affairs before he joyfully set 
forth for his viceroyalty of New Spain. In the meantime, however, 
in order not to lose a moment in remedying the disorders on the 
other side of the Atlantic, the Empress created a new Audiencia, 
at the head of which was Don Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal, 
bishop of St. Domingo, and whose members were the Licenciados 
Vasco de Quiroga, Alonso Maldonado, Francisco Cainos and Juan 
de Salmeron. The appointment of the bishop was well justified 
by his subsequent career of integrity, beneficence and wisdom; 
whilst Vasco de Quiroga has left in Michoacan, and, indeed, in all 
Mexico, a venerated name, whose renown is not forgotten, in 
private life and the legends of the country to the present day. 

In 1535, Mendoza arrived in Mexico with letters for the Au- 
diencia, and was received with all the pomp and splendor becoming 
the representative of royalty. His instructions were couched in 
the most liberal ternas, for, after all, it was chiefly on the personal 
integrity and discretion of a viceroy that the Spanish sovereigns 
were obliged to rely for the sure foundation of their American 
empire. Of the desire of the Emperor and Empress to act their 
parts justly and honestly in the opening of this splendid drama in 
America there can be no doubt. Their true policy was to develope, 
not to destroy; and they at once perceived that, in the New 
World, they no longer dealt with those organized classes of civ- 
ilized society which, in Europe, yield either instinctively to the 
feeling of loyalty, or are easily coerced into obedience to the laws. 

Mendoza was commanded, in the first place, to direct his atten- 
tion to the condition of public worship; to the punishment of 
clergymen who scandalized their calling; to the conversion and 
good treatment of the Indian population, and to the erection of a 
mint in which silver should be coined according to laws made 
upon this subject by Ferdinand and Isabella. All the wealth 
which was found in Indian tombs or temples was to be sought out 
and devoted to the royal treasury. It was forbidden, under heavy 


EARLY ACTS OF THE FIRST VICEROY — COINAGE. 141 


penalties, to sell arms to negroes or Indians, and the latter were, 

moreover, denied the privilege of learning to work in those more 
difficult or elegant branches of labor which might interfere with 
the sale of Spanish imported productions. 

During the following year Mendoza received despatches from 
the Emperor in which, after bestowing encomiums for the manifes- 
tations of good government which the viceroy had already given, 
he was directed to pay particular attention to the Indians; and, 
together with these missives, came a summary of the laws which 
the Council of the Indies had formed for the welfare of the natives. 
These benevolent intentions, not only of the sovereign but of the 
Spanish people also, were made known to the Indians and their 
caciques, upon an occasion of festivity, by a clergyman who was 
versed in their language, and, in a similar way, they were dissemi- 
nated throughout the whole viceroyalty. This year was, moreover, 
memorable in Mexican annals as that in which the first book, 
entitled La Escala de San Juan Climaca, was published in Mexico, 
in the establishment of Juan Pablos, having been printed at a press 
brought to the country by the viceroy Mendoza. Nor was 1536 
alone signalized by the first literary issue of the new kingdom ; for 
the first money, as well as the first book came at this time from the 
Mexican mint. According to Torquemada two hundred thousand 
dollars were coined in copper; but the emission of a circulating 
medium, in this base metal, was so distasteful to the Mexicans, 
that it became necessary for the viceroy to use stringent means in 
order to compel its reception for the ordinary purposes of trade. 

Between the years 1536 and 1540 the history of the Mexican 
viceroyalty was uneventful, save in the gradual progressive efforts 
made not only by Mendoza, but by the Emperor himself, in en- 
deavoring to model and consolidate the Spanish empire on our 
continent. Schools were established; hospitals were erected ; 
the protection of the Indians, under the apostolic labors of Las 
Casas was honestly fostered, and every effort appears to have 
been zealously made to give a permanent and domestic character 
to the population which found its way rapidly into New Spain. 
In 1541 the copper coin, of which we have already spoken as being 
distasteful to the Mexicans, suddenly disappeared altogether from 
circulation, and it was discovered that the natives had either buried 
or thrown it into the lake as utterly worthless. The viceroy en- 
deavored to remedy the evil and dispel the popular prejudice by 
coining cuartillas of silver; but these, from their extreme smallness 
and the constant risk of loss, were equally unacceptable to the 

19 


142 REBELLION IN JALISCO— VICEROY SUPPRESSES IT 


people, who either collected large quantities and melted them into 
bars, or cast them contemptuously mto the water as they had before 
done with the despised copper. 

It was not until about the year 1542, that we perceive in the 
viceroyal history, any attempts upon the part of the Indians to 
make formidable assaults against the Spaniards, whose oppressive 
and grinding system of repartimientos was undoubtedly beginning 
to be felt. At this period the Indians of Jalisco rose in arms, and 
symptoms of discontent were observed to prevail, also, among the 
Tarascos and Tlascalans, who even manifested an intention of 
uniting with the rebellious natives of the north. Mendoza was 
not an idle spectator of these movements, but resolved to go forth, 
in person, at the head of his troops to put down the insurgents. 
Accordingly he called on the Tlascalans, Cholulans, Huexotzinques, 
Tezcocans, and other bands or tribes for support, and permitted 
the caciques to use horses and the same arms that were borne by 
the Spaniards. This concession seems to have greatly pleased the 
natives of the country, though it was pee a, to some of 
their foreign masters. 

In the meanwhile, the coasts of America on the west, and the 
shores of California especially, were examined by the Portuguese 
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, as far north as near the 41st° of latitude; 
whilst another expedition was despatched to the Spice islands, 
under the charge of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. 

The viceroy was moreover busy with the preparation of his army 
designed to march upon Jalisco, and, on the 8th of October, 1542, 
departed from Mexico with a force of fifty thousand Indians, three 
hundred cavalry, and one hundred and fifty Spanish infantry. 
Passing through Michoacan, where he was detained for some time, 
he, at length, reached the scene of the insurrection in Jalisco; but 


before he attacked the rebels he proclaimed through the ecclesi-. 


astics who accompanied him, his earnest wish to accommodate 
difficulties, and, even, to pardon, graciously, all who would lay 
down their arms and return to their allegiance. He ordered that 
no prisoners should be made except of such as were needed to 
transport the baggage and equipments of his troops; and, in every 
possible way, he manifested a humane desire to soften the asperities 
and disasters of the unequal warfare. But the rebellious Indians 
were unwilling to listen to terms : —‘‘ We are lords of all these 
lands,’’ said they, heroically, in reply, ‘“‘and we wish to die in 
their defence ! ” 

Various actions ensued between the Spaniards, their allies, and 


- 


COUNCIL OF THE INDIES ON REPARTIMIENTOS. 143 


the insurgents, until at length, Mendoza obtained such decided 
advantages over his opponents that they gave up the contest, threw 
down their arms, and enabled the viceroy to return to his capital 
with the assurance that the revolted territory was entirely and per- 
manently pacified. His conduct to the Indians after his successes 
was characterized by all the suavity of a noble soul. He took no 
revenge for this assault upon the Spanish authority, and seems, to 
have continually endeavored to win the natives to their allegiance 
by kindness rather than compulsion. 

These outbreaks among the Indians were of course not unknown 
in Spain, where they occasioned no trifling fear for the integrity 
and ultimate dominion of New Spain. The natural disposition of 
the Emperor towards the aborigines, was, as we have said, kind 
and gentle; but he perceived that the causes of these Indian dis- 
contents might be attributed not so much, perhaps, to a patriotic 
desire to recover their violated rights over the country, as to the 
cruelty they endured at the hands of bold and reckless adventurers 
who had emigrated to New Spain and converted the inoffensive 
children of the country into slaves. Accordingly, the Emperor, 
convened a council composed of eminent persons in Spain, to 
consider the condition of his American subjects. This council 
undertook the commission in a proper spirit, and adopted a liberal 
system towards the aborigines, as well as towards the proprietors 
of estates in the islands and on the main, which, in time, would 
have fostered the industry and secured the ultimate prosperity of 
all classes. There were to be no slaves made in the future wars 
of these countries ; the system of repartumientos was to be aban- 
doned ; and the Indians were not, as a class, to be solely devoted 
to ignoble tasks.1. The widest publicity was given to these 
humane intentions in Spain. The Visitador of Hispaniola, or San 
Domingo, Miguel Diaz de Armendariz, was directed to see their 
strict fulfilment in the islands; and Francisco Tello de Sandoval 

-was commissioned to cross the Atlantic to Mexico, with full powers 
and instructions from the Emperor, to enforce their obedience in 
New Spain. 

In February, 1544, this functionary disembarked at St. Juan de 
Ulua, and, a month afterwards, arrived in the capital. No sooner 
did he appear in Mexico than the object of his mission became 
gradually noised about among the proprietors and planters whose 
wealth depended chiefly upon the preservation of their estates and 
Indians in the servile condition in which they were before the 


1 Herrera Decade vii., lib. vi., chap. v. 


144 INDIAN SERVITUDE. 


-assemblage of the Emperor’s council in Spain during the previous 
year. Every effort was therefore made by these persons and their 
sattelites to prevent the execution of the royal will. Appeals were 
addressed to Sandoval invoking him to remain silent. He was 
cautioned not to interfere with a state of society upon which the 
property of the realm depended. ‘The ruin of many families, the 
general destruction of property, the complete revolution of the 
American system, were painted in glowing colors, by these men 
who pretended to regard the just decrees of the Emperor as mere 
‘innovations’? upon the established laws of New Spain. But 
Sandoval was firm, and he was stoutly sustained in his honorable 
loyalty to his sovereign and christianity, by the countenance of 
the viceroy Mendoza. Accordingly, the imperial decrees were 
promulgated throughout New Spain, and resulted in seditious 
movements among the disaffected proprietors which became so 
formidable that the peace of the country was seriously endangered. 
In this dilemma, — feeling, probably, that the great mass of the 
people was the only bulwark of the government against the Indians, 
and that it was needful to conciliate so powerful a body, —per- 
mission was granted by the authorities, to appoint certain represen- 
tatives as a commission to lay the cause before the Emperor himself. 
Accordingly two delegates were despatched to Spain together with 
the provincials of San Francisco, Santo Domingo and San Agustin, 
and other Spaniards of wealth and influence in the colony. 

In the following year, Sandoval, who had somewhat relaxed his 
authority, took upon himself the dangerous task of absolutely en- 
forcing the orders of the Emperor with some degree of strictness, 
notwithstanding the visit of the representatives of the discontented 
Mexicans to Spain. He displaced several oidores and other 
officers who disgraced their trusts, and deprived various proprie- 
tors of their repartimientos or portions of Indians who had been 
abused by the cruel exercise of authority. But, in the meantime, 
the agents had not ceased to labor at the court in Spain. Money, 
influence, falsehood and intrigue were freely used to sustain the 
system of masked slavery among the subjugated natives, and, at 
last, a royal cedula was procured commanding the revocation of 
the humane decrees and ordering the division of the royal domain 
among the conquerors. The Indians, of course, followed the fate 
of the soil; and thus, by chicanery and influence, the gentle efforts 
of the better portion of Spanish society were rendered entirely 
nugatory. The news of this decree spread joy among the Mexican 
landed proprietors. The chains of slavery were rivetted upon the 


QUIVARA — EXPEDITIONS OF CORONADO AND ALARCON. 145 


natives. The principle of compulsory labor was established for- 
ever; and, even to this day, the Indian of Mexico remains the | 
bondsman he was doomed to become in the sixteenth century. 

Between the years 1540 and 1542, an expedition was undertaken 
for the subjugation of an important nation which it was alleged 
existed far to the north of Mexico. A Franciscan missionary, 
Marcos de Naza, reported that he had discovered, north of Sonora, 
a rich and powerful people inhabiting a realm known as Quivara, 
or the seven cities, whose capital, Cibola, was quite as civilized as 
an European city. After the report had reached and been consid- 
ered in Spain, it was determined to send an armed force to this 
region in order to explore, and if possible to reduce the Quivarans 
to the Spanish yoke. Mendoza had designed to entrust this expe- 
dition to Pedro de Alvarado, after having refused Cortéz permis- 
sion to lead the adventurers, —a task which he had demanded as 
his right. But when all the troops were enlisted, Alvarado had 
not yet reached Mexico from Guatemala, and, accordingly, the vice- 
_ roy despatched Vasquez de Coronado, at the head of the enterprise. 
At the same time he fitted out another expedition, with two ships, 
under the orders of Francisco Alarcon, who was to make a recon- 
noisance of the coast as far as the thirty-sixth degree, and, after 
having frequently visited the shores, he was, in that latitude to 
meet the forces sent by land. : 

Coronado set forth from Culiacan, with three hundred and fifty 
Spaniards and eight hundred Indians, and, after reaching the 
source of the Gila, passed the mountains to the Rio del Norte. 
He wintered twice in the region now called New Mexico, explored 
it thoroughly from north to south, and then, striking off to the north 
east, crossed the mountains and wandering eastwardly as far north 
as the fortieth degree of latitude, he unfortunately found neither 
Quivara nor gold. A few wretched ruins of Indian villages were 
all the discoveries made by these hardy pioneers, and thus the en- 
chanted kingdom eluded the grasp of Spain forever. The troop of 
strangers and Indians soon became disorganized and disbanded ; 
nor was Alarcon more successful by sea than Coronado by land. 
His vessels explored the shores of the Pacific carefully, but they 
found no wealthy cities to plunder, nor could the sailors hear of 
any from the Indians with whom they held intercourse. 

In 1546, a desolating pestilence swept over the land, destroying, 
according to some writers, eight hundred thousand Indians, and, 
according to others, five-sixths of the whole population. It lasted 
for about six months; and, at this period, a projected insurrection 


146 peEsT IN 1546 — REVOLUTION — COUNCIL OF BISHOPS. 


among the black slaves and the Tenochan and Tlaltelolcan Indians, 
was detected through a negro. This menaced outbreak was soon 
crushed by Mendoza, who seized and promptly executed the 
ringleaders. 

A portion of the Visitador Sandoval’s orders related to the convo- 
cation of the Mexican bishops with a view to the spiritual welfare 
of the natives, and the prelates were accordingly all summoned to 
the capital, with the exception of the virtuous Las Casas, whose 
humane efforts in behalf of the Indians, and whose efforts 
to free them from the slavery of the repartimientos had sub- 
jected him to the mortal hatred of the planters. The council 
of ecclesiastics met; but it is probable that their efforts were 
quite as ineffectual as the humane decrees of the Emperor, and 
that even in the church itself, there may have been persons 
who were willing to tolerate the involuntary servitude of the natives 
rather than forego the practical and beneficial enjoyment of: estates 
which were beginning to fall into the possession of convents and 
monastaries on the death of pious penitents. 

Meanwhile the population of New Spain increased considerably, 
especially towards the westward. It was soon perceived by Men- 
doza that a single Audiencia was no longer sufficient for so 
extended a country. He, therefore, recommended the appointment 
of another, in Compostella de la Nueva Gallacia, and in 1547, the 
Emperor ordered two letrados for the administration of justice in 
that quarter. The ultimate reduction of the province of Vera-Paz 
was likewise accomplished at this period. The benignant name 
of “True Peace ” was bestowed on this territory from the fact that 
the inhabitants yielded gracefully and speedily to the persuasive 
influence and spiritual conquest of the Dominican monks, and that 
not a single soldier was needed to teach them the religion of Christ 
at the point of the sword. 

During the two or three following years there was but little to 
disturb the quietness of the colony, save in brief and easily sup- 
pressed outbreaks among the Indians. Royal lands were divided 
among poor and meritorious Spaniards ; property which was found 
to be valueless in the neighborhood of cities was allowed to be 
exchanged for mountain tracts, in which the eager adventurers 
supposed they might discover mineral wealth; and the valuable 
mines of Tasco, Zultepec, and Temascaltepec, together with others, 
probably well known to the ancient Mexicans, were once more 
thrown open and diligently worked. 

The wise administration of the Mexican viceroyalty by Mendoza 


MINES—ZAPOTECS REVOLT—MENDOZA REMOVED TO PERU. 147 


had been often acknowledged by the Emperor. He found in this 
distinguished person a man qualified by nature to deal with the 
elements of a new society when they were in their wildest moments 
of confusion, and before they had become organized into the order 
and system of a regular state. Mendoza, by nature firm, amiable, 
and just, seems nevertheless to have been a person who knew 
when it was necessary in a new country, to bend before the storm 
of popular opinion in order to avoid the destruction, not only of his 
own influence, but perhaps of society, civilization and the Spanish 
authorities themselves. In the midst of all the fiery and unregu- 
lated spirit of a colony like Mexico, he sustained the dignity of his 
office unimpaired, and by command, diplomacy, management, and 
probably sometimes by intrigue, he appears to have ensured 
obedience to the laws even when they were distasteful to the 
masses. He was successful upon all occasions except in the en- 
forcement of the complete emancipation of the Indians; but it may 
be questioned whether he did not deem it needful, in the infancy of 
the viceroyalty at least, to subject the Indians to labors which his 
countrymen were either too few in number or too little acclimated 
in Mexico to perform successfully. History must at least do him 
the justice to record the fact that his administration was tempered 
with mercy, for even the Indians revered him as a man who was 
their signal protector against wanton inhumanity. 

Whilst these events occurred in Mexico, Pizarro had subjugated 
Peru, and added it to the Spanish crown. But there, as in Mexico, 
an able man was needed to organize the fragmentary society which 
was in the utmost disorder after the conquest. No one appeared 
to the Emperor better fitted for the task than the viceroy whose 
administration had been so successful in Mexico. Accordingly, 
in 1550, the viceroyalty of Peru was offered to him, and its accep- 
tance urged by the Emperor at a moment when a revolt against 
the Spaniards occurred among the Zapotecas, instigated by their 
old men and chiefs, who, availing themselves of an ancient pro- 
phecy relative to the return of QuETZALCOATL, assured the youths 
and warriors of their tribe that the predicted period had arrived and 
that, under the protection of their restored deity, their chains would 
be broken. In this, as in all other endeavors to preserve order, 
the efforts of Mendoza were successful. He appeased the Indians, 
accepted the proffered task of governing Peru; and, after meeting 
and conferring with his successor, Velasco, in Cholula, departed 


from Mexico for the scene of his new labors on the distant shores 
of the Pacific. 


CHAPTER TIL. 
1551 — 1564. 


VELASCO ENDEAVORS TO AMELIORATE THE CONDITION OF THE 
INDIANS. —- UNIVERSITY OF MEXICO ESTABLISHED — INUNDA- 
TION. — MILITARY COLONIZATION — PHILIP II. — FLORIDA. — 
INTRIGUES AGAINST VELASCO — PHILIPINE ISLES. — DEATH OF 
VELASCO — MARQUES DE FALCES. — BAPTISM OF THE GRAND 
CHILDREN OF CORTEZ. — CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE MARQUES 
DEL VALLE —HIS ARREST — EXECUTION OF HIS FRIENDS. — 
MARQUES DE FALCES — CHARGES AGAINST HIM — HIS FALL. — 
ERRORS OF PHILIP II.— FALL OF MUNOZ AND HIS RETURN. — 
VINDICATION OF THE VICEROY. 


Don Luis DE VELASCO, > 
If. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 


1551 — 1564. 


THE new viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, arrived in Mexico 
without especial orders changing the character of the govern- 
ment. He was selected by the Emperor as a person deemed 
eminently fitted to sustain the judicious policy of his predecessor ; 
and it is probable that he had secret commands from the court to 
attempt once more the amelioration of the Indian population. 
There is no doubt that Charles the Fifth was sincere in his wish to 
protect the natives; and, if he yielded at all, —as we have seen in 
the narrative of the last viceroyalty, — to the demands of the owners 
of repartimientos, it was probably with the hope that a better op- 
portunity of sustaining his humane desires would occur as soon as 
the conquerors or their followers, were glutted by the rich harvests 
they might reap during the early years of the settlement. 

Accordingly, we find, as soon as Velasco had been received in 
Mexico with all suitable ceremony and honor, that, notwithstand- 


ing the continued opposition of the proprietors and planters, he 


proclaimed his determination to carry out the orders that had been 
given to Mendoza, so far as they tended to relieve the Indians 
from the personal labors, tributes, and severe service in the mines 
with which they had been burdened by the conquerors. This, as 


oe 


UNIVERSITY OF MEXICO ESTABLISHED—INUNDATION. 149 


was expected, created extraordinary discontent. ‘The cupidity of 
the sovereign and of his representative were appealed to. It was 
alleged that not only would the Spanish emigrants suffer for the 
want of laborers, but that the royal treasury would soon be emptied 
of the taxes and income which, thus far, had regularly flowed into 
it. But Don Luis was firm in his resolution, and declared that ‘‘the 
liberty of the Indians was of more importance than all the mines in 
the world, and that the revenues they yielded to the Spanish crown 
were not of such a character that all divine and human laws should 
be sacrificed, in order to obtain them. ”’ 

In 1553, the attention of the viceroy was specially directed to 
the subject of education, for the population had so greatly increased 
in the few years of stable government, that unless the best means 
of instructing the growing generation were speedily adopted, it 
was probable that New Spain would lose many of the descendants 
of those families which it was the policy of the crown to establish 
permanently in America. The University of Mexico was therefore 
consecrated and opened in this year; and, in 1555, Paul IV., be- 
stowed upon it the same privileges and rights as were enjoyed by 
that of Salamanca in Spain. 

But this was a sad year for the city of Mexico, in other respects. 
The first inundation since the conquest, occurred in 1553, and for 
three days the capital was under water and the communication kept 
up in boats and canoes. Every effort was made by the viceroy to 
prevent the recurrence of the evil, by the erection of a dyke to dam 
up the waters of the lake; and it is related by contemporary his- 
torians, that he even wrought with his own hands at the gigantic 
work, during the first day, in order to show a good example to the 
citizens who were called on to contribute their personal labor for 
their future protection from such a disaster. 


There were few outbreaks among the Indians during this vice- 
royalty, yet there were troublesome persons among the original 
tribes of the Chichimecas, — some bands of whom were not yet 
entirely subjected to the Spanish government, — who contrived to 
keep up a guerilla warfare, which interrupted the free circulation 
of the Spaniards through the plains and mountain passes of the 
Bajio. These were, in all probability, mere predatory attacks ; but 
as it was impossible for the viceroy to spare sufficient numbers of 
faithful soldiers for the purpose of scouring the hiding places and 
fastnesses of these robber bands, he resolved to found a number of 


villages composed of natives and foreigners, and to place in them, 
20 


150 MILITARY COLONIZATION — PHILIP II— FLORIDA. 


permanently, sufficient numbers of troops to protect the adjacent 
country roads, and to form the nucleus of towns, which, in the 
course of time, would grow to importance. Such was the origin, 
by military colonization, of San Felipe Yztlahuaca, and of San 
Miguel el Grande, now known as Allende, from the hero of that 
name to whom it gave birth. It was the constant policy of the 
Emperor to extend the avenues of industry for his emigrant subjects 
by such a system of security and protection; and, accordingly, Don 
Francisco Ibarra, was despatched to the interior with orders to 
explore the northern and western regions, but, on no account, to 
use arms against the natives except in case of the utmost urgency. 
Ibarra traversed a wide and nearly unknown region, discovered 
rich mines of gold and silver, and colonized many places of con- 
siderable importance in the subsequent development of Mexico, 
and among them, the city of Durango, which is now the capital of 
the state of that name. 


The abdication of Charles V. was unofficially announced in 
Mexico in 1556; but it was not until the 6th of June of the follow- 
ing year that his successor Philip II. was proclaimed in the capital 
of New Spain. The policy of the old Emperor was not changed 
by the accession of the new king; nor does the monarch appear to 
have influenced in any particular manner the destiny of Mexico 
during the continuance of Velasco’s government, except by the 
fitting out, at his special command, under the order of his viceroy, 
of an expedition for the conquest of Florida, which proved disas- 
trous to all concerned in it. Crowds flocked in the year 1558 to 
the standard raised for this adventure, which it was supposed 
would result in gratifying the Spanish thirst for gold. In the 
following year the few who remained of the untoward enterprise, 
returned with their commanders to Havana and thence to New 
Spain. 

Thus far Velasco’s administration had been successful in pre- 
serving the peace in Mexico, —in opening the resources of the 
country in mines, agriculture and pastoral affairs, —and in alle- 
viating the condition of the Indians by gradual restraints on his 
countrymen. His power was unlimited; but he had, in no 
instance abused it, or countenanced its abuse in others. Anxious 
not to rely exclusively upon his own resources, but to take council 
from the best authorities in cases of difficulty or doubt, he invaria- 
bly consulted the Audiencia in all emergencies. But, just and 
loyal as had been his official conduct, it had not saved him from 


INTRIGUES AGAINST VELASCO — PHILIPINE ISLES. 151 


creating enemies; and these, unfortunately, were not only found 
among the rich oppressors whose shameless conduct he strove to 
punish, but even among the members of the Audiencia itself. 
These men combined secretly to undermine the influence of the 
viceroy, and despatched commissioners to Spain, who represented 
to the king that the health of his representative was in a failing 
state, and that it was extremely needful he should be sustained by 
a council whose duty it was to direct him upon all questions of 
public interest. The intriguers were successful in their appeal, 
and a decree soon arrived in New Spain announcing that the 
viceroy should thenceforth do nothing without the previous sanction 
of the Audiencia. This order of the king immediately put the 
power into the hands of individuals whose object was rather to 
acquire sudden wealth than to govern a new and semi-civilized 
nation justly, or to enact laws which would develope the resources 
of the country. The viceroy had been impartial. He held the 
balance between the Indian laborer and the Spanish extortioner. 
His office and emoluments placed him, at that period, high above 
the ordinary temptations of avarice. But the Audiencia, composed 
of several persons, whose position was far inferior to the viceroy’s, 
was accessible to intrigue and corruption, and the unfortunate 
Indians soon found to their cost, that the royal limitation on 
Velasco’s power had lost them a friend and staunch supporter. 
The Audiencia and the viceroy were soon surrounded by parties 
who advocated their different causes with zeal; but the loyal 
viceroy did not murmur in the discharge of his duty and faithfully 
followed the order of the king to submit his judgment to the 
council. Nevertheless all were not so patient as Velasco. Coun- 
ter statements were sent, by skilful advocates, to Spain; and 
Velasco himself required an examination to be made into his 
official conduct. 

Accordingly, Philip II. appointed a certain licenciado Valder- 
rama, as visitador of New Spain, who arrived in 1563, and 
immediately began the discharge of his functions by a course of 
exaction, especially from the Indians, which neither the appeals 
nor the arguments of the viceroy could induce him to abandon. 
The arrival of this harsh and cruel personage, was, indeed, sad for 
Mexico, and, in the country’s history, he still retains the name of 
*¢ | Molestador de los Indios.”’ 

Fortunately for Velasco an escape from the double tyranny of 
the Audiencia and of Valderrama was opened to him in an expedi- 
tion to the Philipine islands which the king had ordered him to 


152 : DEATH OF VELASCO — MARQUES DE FALCES. 


colonize. But whilst he was engaged in organizing his forces and 
preparing for the voyage, his health suddenly gave way, and on 
the 31st of July, 1564, he expired amid the general grief of all the 
worthier classes of Mexico, and, especially, of the Indians, whom 
he had befriended. Death silenced the murmurs of the intriguers. 
When the beneficent viceroy could no longer interfere with the 
selfish interests of the multitude, crowds flocked around his bier to 
honor his harmless remains. 


Don Gaston DE Preratta, Marques pe Fatces, 
II]. Vicrroy or New Spain. 


1564— 1568. 


On the death of Don Luis de Velasco the First, the reins of goy- 
ernment remained in the hands of the Royal Audiencia, in con- 
formity with the order of Philip II. Francisco de Zeinos, Pedro 
de Villalobos, and Geronimo de Orozoco were then the oidores ; 
while Valderrama, whose visit occurred during the government of 
Don Luis de Velasco, as we have already narrated, had departed 
for Spain. In 1564, the expedition which was planned and pre- — 
pared under the last viceroy, sailed for the Philipine islands, and 
founded the celebrated city of Manilla, which has since played so 
distinguished a part in the history of oriental commerce. 

The year 1566 was an important one, at least in the social his- 
tory of Mexico, for it was fraught with danger to the son and 
representative of the illustrious conqueror. ‘The Marques del Valle, 
heir of Hernando Cortéz, had been for sometime established in the 
capital, where he formed the nucleus of a noble circle, and was ad- 
mired by all classes for the splendor with which he maintained the 
honor of his house. His palace was constantly filled with the 
flower of Mexican aristocracy, and among the knightly train of 
gallant men, few were more distinguished for gentle bearing and 
personal accomplishment than Alonso de Avila Alvarado, and his 
brother Gil Gonzalez. The Marques del Valle, distinguished the 
former by his special attentions, and this, together with the impru- 
dent conduct or expressions of Alonso, made him suspected by 
persons who simulated an extraordinary zeal for the Spanish mon- 
archy, whilst, in fact, their chief object was to ingratiate them- 
selves with men of power or influence in order to further their 
private interests. 

On the 30th of June, 1566, the Dean of the Cathedral, Don 
Juan Chico de Molina, baptized in that sacred edifice, the twin 


BAPTISM OF THE GRAND CHILDREN OF CORTEZ. 153 


daughters of the Marques del Valle, whose sponsors were Don 
Lucas de Castilla and Dofia Juana de Sosa. The festivities of the 
gallant Marques upon this occasion of family rejoicing, were, as 
usual among the rich in Spanish countries, attended with the 
utmost magnificence ; and in order to present our readers a picture 
of the manners of the period, we shall describe the scene as it is 
related by those who witnessed it. 

It was a day of general rejoicing and festivity in the city of 
Mexico. From the palace of the Marques to the door of the 
cathedral, a passage was formed under lofty and splendid canopies 
composed of the richest stuffs. A salute of artillery announced the 
entry of the twins into the church, and it was repeated at their 
departure. At the moment when the rites of religion were com- 
pleted and the infants were borne back to their home through the 
covered way, the spectators in the plaza were amused by a chival- 
ric tournament between twelve knights in complete steel. Other 
rare and costly diversions succeeded in an artificial grove, which 
the Marques had caused to be erected in the plazuwela, or lesser 
square, intervening between his palace and the cathedral. Nor 
were these amusements designed alone for persons of his own 
rank, for the masses of the people were also summoned to partake 
his bountiful hospitality. At the doors of his princely dwelling 
tables were sumptuously spread with roasted ecxen, all kinds of 
wild fowl and numberless delicacies, whilst two casks of white and 
red wine,— then esteemed in Mexico the most luxurious rari- 
ties, —_ were set flowing for the people. 

At night, Alonso Gonzalez de Avila, the intimate companion 
of the Marques, entertained the chief personages of Mexico with a 
splendid ball, during which there was a performance, or symbolical 
masque representing the reception of Hernando Cortéz by the Em- 
peror Montezuma. Alonso, splendidly attired, sustained the part 
of the Mexican sovereign. During one of the evelutions of the 
spectacle, Avila threw around the neck of the young Marques a 
collar of intermingled flowers and jewels, similar to the one with 
which his father had been adorned by Montezuma; and, at the 
conclusion of the scene, he placed on the heads of the Marques and 
his wife a coronet of laurel, with the exclamation, —‘‘ How well 
these crowns befit your noble brows!” 

These simple diversions of a family festival were, doubtless, 
altogether innocent, and, certainly, not designed to prefigure an 
intention upon the part of the Marques and his friends to usurp the 
Povernment of the New World. But it is probable that he had 


154 CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE MARQUES DEL VALLE. 


unwisely made enemies of men in power who were either ridicu- 
lously suspicious, or eagerly sought for any pretext, no matter how 
silly, to lay violent hands upon the son of Cortéz. It is probable, 
too, that the prestige, —the moral power,—of the great con- 
queror’s name had not yet ceased to operate in Mexico; and, in 
those days when individuals were not dainty in ridding themselves 
of dangerous intruders, it is not unlikely that it was the policy of 
the Audiencia and its coadjutors to drive the gallant Marques from 
scenes, which, in the course of time, might tempt his ambition. 
The extreme popularity of such a man was not to be tolerated. 

However, the domestic festival, symbolical as it was deemed by 
some of a desire to foreshadow the destiny of the son of Cortéz, 
was allowed to pass over. ‘The oidores and their spies, meditating 
in secret over the crowning of Cortéz and his wife by Avila, and 
the remarkable words by which the graceful act was accompanied, 
resolved to embrace the first opportunity to detect what they de- 
clared was a conspiracy to wrest the dominion of New Spain from 
Philip II. 

When men are anxious to commit a crime, a pretext or an 
occasion is not generally long wanting to accomplish the wicked | 
design. Accordingly we find that on the 13th of August, the 
anniversary of the capture of the capital, the alleged conspiracy, 
was to break out. A national procession, in honor of the day, was 
to pass along the street of San Francisco and to return through that 
which now bears the name of Tacuba. Certain armed bands, con- 
vened under the pretext of military display, were to be stationed 
in the way, while, from a small turret in which he had concealed 
himself, Don Martin Cortéz, the son of the conquerer by the In- 
dian girl Mariana, was to sally forth, and seize the royal standard, 
and being immediately joined by the armed bands, was, forthwith, 
to proclaim the Marques del Valle king of Mexico and to slay the 
oidores as well as all who should offer the least resistance. 

Such was the story which the authorities had heard or feigned 
to have heard through their trusty spies. Nearly a month before 
the dreaded day, however, the Audiencia assembled, and requested 
the presence of the Marques del Valle, under the pretext that de- 
spatches had been received from the king of Spain, which, by his 
special order, were only to be opened in presence of the son of 
Cortéz. The Marques, who imagined no evil, immediately re-— 
sponded to the call of the oidores, and the moment he entered the 
hall the doors were guarded by armed men. Cortéz was ordered 
to seat himself on a common stool, while one of the functionaries 


HIS ARREST — EXECUTION OF HIS FRIENDS. 155 


announced to him that he was a prisoner, in the name of the king. 
“For what?’ eagerly demanded the Marques. ‘*As a traitor 
to his Majesty!”’ was the foul reply. ‘‘ You lie!” exclaimed 
Cortéz, springing from his seat, and grasping the hilt of his dag- 
ger;—‘‘I am no traitor to my king,—vnor are there traitors 
among any of my lineage! ”’ 

The natural excitement of the loyal nobleman subsided after a 
moment’s reflection. He had been entrapped into the hands of the 
Audiencia, and finding himself completely, though unjustly, in 
their power, he at once resolved to offer no childish opposition, 
when resistance would be so utterly useless. With the manly 
dignity of a chivalrous Spaniard, he immediately yielded up his 
weapons and was taken prisoner to the apartments that had been 
prepared for him. His half brother, Don Martin, was also appre- 
hended, and orders were sent to the city of Tezcoco for the seizure 
of Don Luis Cortéz who resided there as justice or governor. In 
Mexico, Alonso Avila Alvarado, and his brother Gil Gonzalez, 
with many other distinguished men were incarcerated, and the 
papers of all the prisoners were, of course, seized and eagerly 
scrutinized by the sattelites who hoped to find in them a confirma- 
tion of the imaginary conspiracy. 

Among the documents of Alonso de Avila a large number of 
love letters were found; but neither in his papers nor in those of 
his brother, or of the many victims of these foul suspicions, who 
languished in prison, did they discover a single line to justify their 
arrest. Nevertheless, Don Alonso and his brother Don Gil Gon- 
zalez, were singled out as victims and doomed to death. The 
authorities dared not, probably, strike at a person so illustrious and 
so popular as the Marques del Valle; but they resolved to justify, 
in the public eye, their inquisitorial investigation, by the sacrifice of 
some one. The public would believe that there was in reality a 
crime when the scaffold reeked with blood; and, besides, the blow 
would fall heaviest on the family of Cortéz when it struck the 
cherished companions of his home and heart. 

On the 7th of August, at seven in the evening, Alonso and Gil 
Gonzalez were led forth te the place of execution in front of the Casa 
de Cabildo. Their heads were struck off and stuck on spears on 
the roof of the edifice; whence they were finally taken, at the ear- 
nest remonstrance of the Ayuntamiento, and buried with the bodies 
of the victims in the church of San Agustin. Every effort had 
been made to save the lives of these truly innocent young men. 
But although the principal persons in the viceroyalty, united in the 


156 MARQUES DE FALCES — CHARGES AGAINST HIM. 


appeal for mercy if not for justice, the inexorable oidores carried 
out their remorseless and bloody decree. It is even asserted that 
these cruel men would not have hesitated to inflict capital punish- 
ment upon the Marques himself had not the new viceroy, Don 
Gaston de Peralta, Marques de Falces, arrived at San Juan de 
Ulua, on the 17th of September, 1566. 

As soon as this personage reached Mexico he began to enquire 
into the outrage. He was quickly satisfied that the whole pro- 
ceeding was founded in malice. The oidores were removed, and 
others being. placed in their posts, the viceroy despatched a missive 
to the court of Spain containing his views and comments upon the 
conduct of the late officials. But the document was sent by a 
man who was secretly a warm friend of the brutal oidores, and, to 
save them from the condign punishment they deserved, he with- 
held it from the king. 

Yet these functionaries, still fearing that their crime would be 
finally punished, not only treacherously intercepted the despatch 
of the viceroy, but also took the speediest opportunity to send to 
the king accusations against Don Gaston himself, in which they 
charged him with negligence in his examination of the conspiracy, 
with treasonable alliance with the Marques del Valle, and with a 
design to usurp the government of New Spain. ‘They founded 
their allegations upon the false oaths of several deponents, who 
alleved that the viceroy had already prepared and held at his orders 
thirty thousand armed men. ‘This base imposture, as ridiculous as 
it was false, originated in an act of Peralta which was altogether 
innocent. Being a man of fine taste, and determining that the 
viceroyal residence should be worthy the abode of his sovereign’s 
representative, he caused the palace to be refitted, and, among the 
adornments of the various saloons, he ordered a large painting to 
be placed on the walls of one of the chambers in which a battle 
was represented containing an immense number of combatants. 
This was the army which the witnesses, upon their oaths, repre- 
sented to the king, as having been raised and commanded by the 
viceroy! It can scarcely be supposed possible that the Audiencia 
of Mexico would have resorted to such flimsy means to cover their 
infamy. It seems incredible that such mingled cruelty and child- 
ishness could ever have proceeded from men who were deputed to 
govern the greatest colony of Spain. Yet such is the unques- 
tionable fact, and it indicates, at once, the character of the age 
and of the men who managed, through the intrigues of court, to 


HIS FALL— ERRORS OF PHILIP II. Thy 


crawl to eminence and power which they only used to gratify 
vindictive selfishness or to glut their inordinate avarice. 

Philip the II. could not, at first, believe the accusations of the 
oidores against the family of Cortéz and the distinguished noble- 
man whom he had sent to represent him in Mexico. He resolved, 
therefore, to wait the despatches of the viceroy. But the oidores 
had been too watchful to allow those documents to reach the court 
of Spain; and Philip, therefore, construing the silence of Don 
Gaston de Peralta, into a tacit confession of his guilt, sent the 
Licenciados Jaraba, Mufioz, and Carillo to New Spain, as Jueces 
Pesquisidores, with letters for the viceroy commanding him to yield 
up the government and to return to Spain in order to account for 
his conduct. 

These men immediately departed on their mission and arrived 
safely in America without accident, save in the death of Jaraba 
one of their colleagues. As soon as they reached Mexico, they 
presented their despatches to the viceroy, and Muiioz took posses- 
‘sion of the government of New Spain. The worthy and noble 
Marques de Falces was naturally stunned by so unprecedented and 
unexpected a proceeding; but, satisfied of the justice of his cause 
as well as of the purity of his conduct, he left the capital and 
retired to the castle of San Juan de Ulua, leaving the reins of 
power in the hands of Mufioz whose tyrannical conduct soon 
destroyed all the confidence which hitherto had always existed, at 
least between the Audiencia and the. people of the metropolis. ! 
It was probably before this time that the Marques del Valle was 
released ; and deeming the new empire which his father had 
given to Spain no safe resting place for his descendants, he 
departed once more for the Spanish court. The viceroy himself, 
had fallen a victim to deception and intrigue. 


It seems to have been one of the weaknesses of Philip the 
Second’s character to have but little confidence in men. With 
such examples as we have just seen, it may, nevertheless, have 
been an evidence of his wisdom that he did not rely upon the 
courtiers who usually surround a king. He had doubted, in 
reality, the actual guilt of the Marques de Falces, and was, there- 
fore, not surprised when he learned the truth upon these weighty 
matters in the year 1568. The government of Mujioz, his visita- 
dor, was, moreover, represented to him as cruel and bloody. The 
conduct of the previous Audiencia had been humane when com- 


Liceo Mexicano vol. 1, p. 263, et seq. 
21 


158 FALL OF MUNOZ AND HIS RETURN. 


pared with the acting governor’s. The prisons, which already 
existed in Mexico were not adequate to contain his victims, and 
he built others whose dark, damp and narrow architecture rendered 
incarceration doubly painful to the sufferers. Don Martin Cortéz, 
the half brother of the Marques del Valle, who remained in the 
metropolis as the attorney and representative of his kinsman, was 
seized and put to torture for no crime save that the blood of the 
conqueror flowed in his veins, and that he had enjoyed friendly 
relations with the suspected conspirators. Torture, it was ima- 
gined would wring from him a confession which might justify the 
oidores. The situation of New Spain could not, indeed, be worse 
than it was, for no man felt safe in the midst of such unrestrained 
power and relentless cruelty ; and we may be permitted to believe 
that outraged humanity would soon have risen to vindicate itself 
against such brutes and to wrest the fruits of the conquest from a 
government that sent forth such wicked sattelites. Even the 
Audiencia itself, —the moving cause of this new and bad govern- 
ment,— began to tremble when it experienced the humiliating 
contempt with which it was invariably treated by the monster 
Munoz. | 

But all these acts of maladministration were more safely re- 
ported to the Spanish court by the nobles and oidores of Mexico, 
than the despatches of the unfortunate Marques de Falces. Philip 
eagerly responded to the demand for the removal of Mufioz. He 
despatched the oidores Villanueva and Vasco de Puga, to Mexico, 
with orders to Mufioz to give up the government in three hours 
after he received the royal despatch, and to return immediately to 
Spain for judgment of his conduct. The envoys lost no time in 
reaching their destination, where they found that Mufioz had 
retired to the convent of Santo Domingo, probably as a sanctuary, 
in order to pass Holy Week. But the impatient emissaries, re- 
sponding to the joyful impatience of the people, immediately fol- 
lowed him to his retreat, and, after waiting a considerable time in 
the anti-chamber, and being, at last, most haughtily received by 
Mufioz, who scarcely saluted them with a nod, Villanueva drew 
from his breast the royal cedula, and commanded his secretary to 
read it in a loud voice. : 

For a while the foiled visitador sat silent, moody and thought-— 
ful, scarcely believing the reality of what he heard. After a pause, — 
in which all parties preserved silence, he rose and declared his 
willingness to yield to the king’s command; and thus, this brutal 
chief, who but a few hours before believed himself a sovereign in 


VINDICATION OF THE VICEROY. 159 


Mexico, was indebted to the charity of some citizens for a carriage 
in which he travelled to Vera Cruz. Here a fleet was waiting to 
transport him to Spain. The late viceroy, the Marques de Falces, 
departed in a ship of the same squadron, and, upon his arrival at 
the court, soon found means to justify himself entirely in the eyes 
of his sovereign. But it went harder with Mufioz. He vainly 
tried his skill at exculpation with the king. Philip seems to have 
despised him too much to enter into discussion upon the merits of 
the accusations. ‘The facts were too flagrant. The king returned 
him his sword, declining to hear any argument in his justification. 
“7 sent you to the Indies to govern, not to destroy! ”’ said Philip, 
as he departed from his presence; and that very night the visitador 
suddenly expired ! 

Whether he died of mortification or violence, is one of those 
state secrets, which, like many others of a similar character, the 
chronicles of Spain do not reveal! 

Don Martin Cortéz and his family took refuge in Spain where 


his case was fully examined; and whilst the investigation lasted, 


from 1567 to 1574, his estates in Mexico were confiscated. He 
was finally declared innocent of all the charges, but his valuable 
property had been seriously injured and wasted by the officers of 
the crown, to whom it was intrusted during the long period of 
sequestration. 


CHAPTER TY. 
1568 — 1589. 


ALMANZA VICEROY. — CHICHIMECAS REVOLT — JESUITS — INQUI- 
SITION. — PESTILENCE.—NO INDIAN TRIBUTE EXACTED.—AL- 
MANZA DEPARTS — XUARES ‘VICEROY. — WEAK ADMINISTRA- 
TION — INCREASE OF COMMERCE. — PEDRO MOYA DE CONTRE- 
RAS VICEROY. — REFORMS UNDER A NEW VICEROY. — HIS POW- 
ER AS VICEROY AND INQUISITOR. — ZUNIGA VICEROY. — TREA- 
SURE — PIRACY. — CAVENDISH — DRAKE CAPTURES A GALEON. 
ZUNIGA AND THE AUDIENCIA OF GUADALAJARA — HIS DEPOSI- 
TION FROM POWER. 


Don Martin Enriquez DE ALMANZA. 


IV. Viceroy ofr New SPaIn. 
1568—1580. 


Tue salutary lesson received by the Audiencia in the events 
which occurred in the metropolis durmg late years, induced its 
members to conduct themselves with less arrogance during the 
short time they held supreme power after the departure of the Visi- 
tadores. In October of 1568, a new viceroy, Don Martin Enriquez 
de Almanza, arrived at Vera Cruz, whence he reached the capital 
on the 5th of the following November after having routed the 
English whom he found in possession of the Isle of Sacrificios. 

Don Martin immediately perceived, upon assuming the reins of 
government, that it was necessary to calm the public mind in the 
metropolis which, from recent occurrences, now began to regard 
all men in authority with jealousy and distrust. He let the people 
understand, therefore, from the first, that he did not design to 
countenance any proceedings similar to those which had lately 
almost disorganized and revolutionized the colony. An occasion 
soon presented itself in which his prudence and discretion were 
required to adjust a serious dispute concerning the Franciscan 
monks and in which the people sympathized with the brotherhood 
and their supposed rights. Any act of rigor or harshness would 


CHICHIMECAS REVOLT — JESUITS — INQUISITION. 161 


have kindled the flame of sedition, but the mild diplomacy of the 
viceroy sufficed to calm the litigants and to restore perfect peace to 
the capital. A religious dispute, in such a community as Mexico 
then was, seemed, indeed, an affair of no small moment, especially 
when it arose in so tempestuous a period of the nation and was 
the first occasion to try the temper and talents of a new viceroy. 

But the attention of Don Martin was soon to be drawn from the 
capital towards the frontiers of his government, where he found 
that the troublesome bands of wandering Chichimecas, had been 
busy in their old work of robbery and spoliation, whilst the Audi- 
encia was engaged in its intrigues and corruption in the city of 
Mexico. The impunity with which these martial vagabonds had 
been allowed to proceed, increased their daring, and the evils they 
inflicted on the country were becoming continually greater. Not 
satisfied with having despatched the chief alcalde of the hostile 
region with the militia to punish the rebels, he joined the forces of 
that officer, and succeeded after great slaughter in compelling the 
Indians to quit the soil they had hitherto ravag’d. It should be 
recorded, in justice to the viceroy, that he ordered the Indian 
. children who fell into the hands of his soldiery, to be spared, and, 
at the end of the campaign, brought them all to the metropolis, 
where he distributed them among rich families so that they might 
receive a christian education. In order to save the region from 
further devastation he established therein a colony, to which he 
gave the name of San Felipe, perhaps in honor of his king, as he 
bestowed upon it the title of “ city.” 

Such was the condition of things when Pedro Moya de Contreras 
arrived in Mexico as Inquisitor, having been sent by Philip to 
establish the dread tribunal of the faith in that capital. The 
Spanish king feared that the doctrines of the reformation which 
were then rife in Europe might find friends among his transatlantic 
‘subjects, and he mercifully resolved to give them, as a guardian of 
their consciences, this sad and dreadful present. In 1572, Doctor 
Pedro Sanchez, a Jesuit, with various brethren of the same order, 
came to the city of Mexico, and founded a college in certain edi- 
fices which were ceded to them for that purpose by Alonso Villaseca. 
The brethren of the holy office, or inquisition, meanwhile organ- 
ized their body, for future operations, and settled under the wings 
of the church of Santo Domingo. 

It was at this period, also, that Don Martin established the 
— aleabala ; and, although the merchants opposed the measure, which 
was entirely new to them, and alleged that it was a mortal blow to 


162 PESTILENCE — NO INDIAN TRIBUTE EXACTED. 


their business, they were unable to force the viceroy to retract his 
measure. His determination was founded on the fact that trade 
had now become established on a firm and robust basis, and that it 
could well bear without injury an impost of this character. 


In the years 1574 and 1575 there were serious discussions 
between the temporal and spiritual powers of Mexico, growing out 
of a royal order that no prelate should be admitted in the country 
unless he bore a suitable license from the Council of the Indies. 
In 1576, Mexico was again visited by a frightful pestilence, which 
spread rapidly, and carried off large numbers of victims. The 
whole of New Spain was ravaged by it, and neither care, nor 
medical science, seems to have had the least effect either in curing 
or in alleviating the sufferers. The symptoms of this malady were 
a violent pain in the head which was succeeded by a burning fever, 
under which the patient sank. None survived the seventh day, 
and it is reported that near two millions perished under the dread- 
ful scourge. The malady abated at the close of the rainy season, 
and disappeared entirely at the beginning of 1577. 

In the two succeeding years, Don Martin commanded that 
the usual annual tribute should not be collected from the Indians. 
This measure was designed to alleviate the lot of these suffering 
subjects of the king and to testify the paternal regard which he 
cherished for a race that served him and his subjects so beneficially 
in the mines. It was in the mineral districts that the Indians were 
in reality the greatest sufferers and laborers in New Spain. Their 
toil was incessant. Their task masters gave them no respite in 
the bowels of the earth, for they wrought as if they designed to 
scrape every vein and artery of the colony’s soil. Silver and labor 
were calculated with exactness, and no limit to the Indian’s indus- 
try was prescribed save that which was imposed by his capacity 
for work and his power of endurance. The viceroy, seeking to 
alleviate this, introduced a milder system, as far as he was able, 
among the leading miners of the colony. He insisted upon per- 
mitting the Indians regular repose, and he forbade their entire 
confinement within the mines, but commanded that they should be 
allowed time to breathe the fresh air on the surface of the earth, and 
suffered to attend to their own domestic labors, or to toil on public 
works for a competent recompense. 

The government of Don Martin had thus far been unusually 
calm, but his last moments in Mexico were to be disturbed by a 
quarrel with a Franciscan monk, named Rivera, who had called at — 


ALMANZA DEPARTS — XUARES VICEROY. 163 


the palace to see the viceroy on a matter of business for his con- 
yent, and had been forced to wait a considerable time without 
being finally honored with an audience. ‘The petulant friar re- 
garded this as a slight upon the brotherhood, and, shortly after- 
wards, whilst preaching in the cathedral, declared, with a sneering 
and offensive purpose against the viceroy, that ‘“‘in the palace all 
became equal, and that no difference was made between ecclesi- 
astics and secular folks !”’ 

The viceroy could not permit so flagrant a breach of decorum 
and so dangerous a taunt in a popular appeal, to rest unrebuked. 
He therefore demanded the punishment of the pulpit critic, and 
the Audiencia ordered Rivera to depart forthwith for Spain. But 
the haughty monk in order to avoid the disgrace of expulsion, 
united the whole body of his fraternity in the quarrel, and singing 
the psalm ‘“‘In exitu Israel de Aigipto,” they departed from the 
city by the road leading to Vera Cruz. The viceroy seems to have 
been moved by this act of the brotherhood, and immediately wrote 
to Rivera in soothing terms requesting him to return to Mexico 
where justice should be done him. The Franciscan returned, but 
soon after received a royal order to depart for Spain. 

In 1580, the abundant rain caused again an inundation of the 
capital, and Don Martin Enriquez was about to engage in the 
construction of the celebrated canal of Huehuetoca, when he was 
removed to the viceroyalty of Peru. 


Don Lorenzo XuaRES, ConDE DE LA CoruNa, 


V. Viceroy oF Mexico. 
1580 — 1583. 


Don Lorenzo Xuares, Conde de la Corufia, was appointed by 
the king, successor of Almanza, and made his triumphal entry into 
the city of Mexico on the evening of the 4th of October, 1580. 
The gay and affable character of this personage at once attracted 
the people and the colonial court; and in consequence of the rapidly 
increasing population, wealth, and luxury of New Spain, as well 
as from the unreserved demeanor of the viceroy, it was supposed 
that a golden age had arrived in the history of Mexico, which 
would forever signalize the administration of Xuares. 

Perhaps the viceroy was too lenient and amiable for the task 
that had been imposed on him in America. The epoch of specu- 
lation and adventure had not yet passed by, and of course, the 
corruption which ever follows in their train required still to be 


164 WEAK ADMINISTRATION — INCREASE OF COMMERCE. 


closely watched and quickly checked. To this duty Xuares did 
not immediately address himself, and the result was that the 
oidores, the alcaldes, and all who administered justice, at once put 
themselves up to auction and sold their services, their favors, or 
their decisions to the highest bidder. Disorder reigned in every 
department, in the year following the arrival of Xuares; and even 
the royal revenues, which hitherto had generally remained sacred, 
were squandered or secreted by the persons to whose care and 
fidelity their collection was intrusted. The limitations which we 
have already seen were placed upon a viceroy’s power in the time 
of Velasco, now tied the hands of Xuares. He could not dismiss 
or even suspend the defrauders of the revenue or the public 
wretches who prostituted their official power for gold. Nor was 
he, probably, unwilling to be deprived of a dangerous right which 
would have placed him in direct hostility to the army of specula- 
tors and jobbers. And yet it was necessary for the preservation 
of the colony that these evils should be quickly abated. In this 
political strait, concealing his intentions from the viceroyal court, 
he applied to Philip to send a Visitador with: ample pees to re- 
adjust the disorganized realm. 

The commerce of New Spain had augmented astonisltiniae within 
a few years. Vera Cruz and Acapulco had become splendid em- 
poriums of wealth and trade. The east and the west poured their 
people into Mexico through these cities ; and, in the capital, some 
of the most distinguished merchants of Europe, Asia, and Africa 
met every year, midway between Spain and China, to transact 
business and exchange opinions upon the growing facilities of an 
extended commerce. Peru and Mexico furnished the precious 
metals which were always so greedily. demanded by the east. In 
1581, Philip II., in view of this state of things in his colony, 
issued a royal order for the establishment in Mexico for a Tribunal 
de Consulado,! though, it was not, in fact, actually put in effective 
operation until the year 1593, under the administration of Velasco 
the Second. In the midsummer of 1582, the viceroy expired, pro- 
bably of mingled anxiety and old age; and it was well for Mexico 
that he passed so rapidly from a stage in whose delicate drama, his 
years and his abilities altogether unfitted him to play so con- 
spicuous a part. 


1 This was a mercantile tribunal. 


REFORMS UNDER A NEW VICEROY. 165 


Don Prepro Moya DE ConrTRERAS, 
ArcupisHop oF Mexico, First INquisiror AND VISITADOR, AND 


VI. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1583 — 1585. 


Upon the death of Xuares, the Audiencia immediately assumed 
the direction of the state; but the members of this august tribunal 
were altogether ignorant of the demand made by the late vice- 
roy for a Visitador, until Don Pedro de Contreras, placed in 
their hands the despatch from Philip, naming him for this impor- 
tant service. 

The archbishop was a man well known in Mexico. Cold, aus- 
tere, rigid in his demeanor and principles, he was the very man to 
be chosen for the dangerous duty of contending with a band of 
rich, proud and unscrupulous officials. His sacred character as 
arch-prelate of Mexico, was of no little use in such an exigency, 
for it gave him spiritual as well as temporal power over masses 
which might sometimes be swayed by their conscientious dread of 
the church, even when they could not be controled by the arm of 
law. Besides this, he was the first Inquisitor of Mexico, and in 
the dreaded mysteries of the holy office, there -was an overwhelm- 
ing power before which the most daring offenders would not ven- 
ture to rebel or intrigue. 

It may be well imagined that the unexpected appearance of so 
formidable an ecclesiastic upon the state, armed with the sword 
as well as the cross, was well calculated to awe the profligate off- 
cials. The members of the Audiencia trembled when they read 
the royal order, for the archbishop knew them well, and had been 
long cognizant, not only of their own maladministration but of the 
irregularities they countenanced in others. 

Don Pedro immediately undertook the discharge of his office, 
and in a few days, heard a great number of complaints against 
_ various individuals, but as he did not design proceeding with re- 
vengeful severity against even the most culpable, he resolved to 
report his proceedings to.the king, and, in the meanwhile, to 
retain in office all persons who performed their duties faithfully 
whilst he put an end to the most flagrant abuses. 

As soon as Philip II. heard, in 1584, of the death of Mendoza, he 
added the title and powers of viceroy to those already possessed by 
the archbishop, and, with his commission as royal representative, 


he sent him additional authority which had never been enjoyed by 
22 


166 HIS POWER AS VICEROY AND INQUISITOR. 


any of his predecessors. He was, thus, empowered to remove, at 
will, all persons from public employment, and even to expel minis- 
ters and oidores, as well as to visit with severe punishments all 
who deserved them. Under this ample discretion the viceroy 
removed some of the oidores, suspended others, hanged certain 
royal officers who had disgraced their trusts, and brought the tribu- 
nals of justice into perfect order. The king had proposed to bring 
the dispersed Indians into towns and villages so as to control them 
more effectually, but the viceroy, after consulting the priests who 
were best acquainted with that population, deemed it best to defer 
the execution of the royal order until he laid the objections to it 
before Philip.1. In 1585, a seminary for the Indians was estab- 
lished, in which they were taught to read, write and comprehend 
the rudiments of the Catholic faith. This institution was under 
the charge of the Jesuits, whose zeal for education has been cele- 
brated in the history of all countries into which this powerful and 
enlightened order of the priesthood has penetrated. A provincial 
council of American bishops, was, moreover, convened this year 
in Mexico under the auspices of Contreras. 

Nor was the viceroy eager only to correct the civil and religious 
abuses of the country without attending to the fiscal advantages 
which he knew the king was always eager to secure from his 
colonies. In testimony of his zeal he despatched, at this period, a 
rich fleet for Spain. It bore three millions three hundred thou- 
sand ducats in coined silver, and one thousand one hundred marks 
in gold, together with a variety of other valuable products, all of 
which arrived safely in port. 

The power of this vigorous ruler, as viceroy, continued, how- 
ever, but for a single year. He was the scourge of officials in all 
classes, while the good men of the colony prayed heartily for the 
continuance of his authority ; but it is probable that his rigor had 
excited against him the talents for intrigue which we have hereto- 
fore seen were sometimes so actively and successfully employed 
both in Mexico and Spain. In October of 1585, his successor 
arrived in the capital. 

1 The Indians alluded to in this passage were vaguely designated as Chichimecas, 


Otomies, and Mexican. They probably inhabited a tract of country lying north 
west of the kingdom of Michoacan.—See Ist. vol. Trans. Amn. Ethnl. Soc. p 2. 


ZUNIGA VICEROY — TREASURE — PIRACY. 167 


Don Atvaro Enrique pe ZuNiea, Marques pre Vitta Man- 
RIQUE, 


VII. Viceroy or Mexico. 


1585 — 1589. 


The arrival of the Marques de Villa Manrique was not designed 
to interfere with the functions of the archbishop and former viceroy 
Contreras, as Visitador. He was solicited to contiuue his plenary 
examination into the abuses of government in New Spain, and to 
clear the country of all malefactors before he retired once more to 
the cloisters. Accordingly, Don Pedro remained in Mexico some 
time discharging his duties, and it is probably owing to his 
presence that the first year of the new viceroy passed off in perfect 
peace. But in the succeeding year, in which the archbishop 
departed for Spain, his troubles began by a serious discussion with 
the Franciscans, Agustins and Dominicans, in which the monks — 
at last appealed from the viceroy to the king. Before Contreras, 
_ the visitador, left Mexico he had managed to change all the judges 
composing the tribunals of the colony. The men he selected in 
their stead were all personally known'to him or were appointed 
upon the recommendation of persons whose integrity and capacity 
for judgment were unquestionable. 

This remarkable man died soon after his arrival in Madrid, 
where he had been appointed president of the Council of the Indies. 
Like all reformers he went to his grave poor; but when the king 
learned his indigence he took upon himself the costs of sepulture, 
and laid his colonial representative and bishop to the tomb in a 
manner befitting one who had exercised so great and beneficial an 
influence in the temporary reform of the New World. The sole 
stain upon the memory of Contreras is perhaps the fact that he 
was an inquisitor. 

In 1587, the viceroy Zuifiiga despatched a large amount of 
treasure to Spain. Enormous sums were drained annually from 
the colonies for the royal metropolis; but, in this year the fleet 
from Vera Cruz sailed with eleven hundred and fifty-six marks of 
gold, in addition to an immense amount of coined silver and mer- 
chandise of great value. These sums passed safely to the hands 
of the court; but such was not the case with all the precious 
freights that left the American coasts, for, at this period, the 
Shores of our continent, on both oceans, began to swarm with 
pirates. The subjects of various European nations, but especially 
the English, were most active in enterprises which, in those days, 


168 CAVENDISH — DRAKE CAPTURES A GALEON. 


were probably regarded more as privateering than as the bandit | 


expeditions they have since been considered not only in morals 
but in law. In the year before, Cavendish had taken in the 
Pacific, a Spanish ship, which was bound from Manilla to Aca- 
pulco, with a rich cargo of wares from China; and, in this year, it 
was known that Drake, another noted adventurer, after making 
himself celebrated by the capture of San Agustin, in Florida, had 
sailed for the Pacific ocean, whose rich coasts, as well as the 
oriental traders, formed a tempting booty for the bucanier. 

As soon as the viceroy heard of this piratical sailor’s approach 
to the western boundary of his colony, he commanded the troops 
in Guadalajara to embark at Acapulco, under the orders of Doctor 
Palacios, in all the vessels which were then in port, and to scour 
the shores of America until the British marauder was captured. 
But, upon the commander’s arrival at Acapulco, he was informed 
that the freebooter had already abandoned the west coast after 
sacking several towns, and that he had not been seen or heard of 
any where for a long period. Drake, meanwhile, was in con- 
cealment among the distant and unfrequented coves of California, 
in such a situation, however, that he could easily intercept the 
galeon, which passed every year from the Philipines to Mexico, 
laden with goods and metals of considerable value. In due time 
he pounced upon his unsuspecting prey; and, carrying her into a 
bay near the Cape of San Lucas, plundered her valuable cargo, and 
set fire to the deserted hull. The news of this mishap soon reached 
the ears of Palacios, who, of course, immediately set sail after the 
corsair. But Drake was already far on his way to a spot of safety 
in which he and his companions might enjoy the fruits of their 
piratical adventure. | 

This successful attack upon a vessel of so much importance to 
the colony,—for only one was annually permitted to cross the 
Pacific, — greatly troubled the people who depended upon its 
arrival for their yearly supply of oriental wares. But as soon as 
the general calm was gradually restored, an internal trouble arose 
which was well nigh proving of serious import to the viceroyalty. 
Zuniga does not seem to have been contented with the jurisdiction 
which had hitherto been conceded to the viceroy, but, being 
anxious to extend his authority over certain towns and villages, 
under the control of the Audiencia of Guadalajara, he demanded of 
that body the surrender of their dominion. The Audiencia, how- 
ever, was jealous of its rights, and would not yield to the viceroy 
who was equally pertinacious. The dispute ran high between the 


ZUNIGA AND THE AUDIENCIA OF GUADALAJARA. 169 


parties. Threats were used when diplomacy failed, and at length, 
the disputants reached, but did not pass, the verge of civil war, 
for, on both sides they seem to have ordered out troops, who, for- 
tunately never actually engaged in combat. 

This ill judged act of the viceroy was fatal to his power. Let- 
ters and petitions were forthwith despatched to Madrid requiring 
and begging the removal of a man whose rashness was near pro- 
ducing a civil war. This was a charge not to be disregarded by 
the king, and, accordingly, we find that a successor to Zufiga was 
immediately named, and that the bishop of Tlascala was appointed 
visitador to examine the conduct of the deposed viceroy. 

On the 17th of January, 1590, this prelate, who seems to have 
been originally inimical to Zuniga, and who should therefore have 
disdained the office of his judge, ordered him to depart from 
Mexico. All the property of the late viceroy, — even the linen of 
his wife, — was sequestrated ; the most harassing annoyances were 
constantly inflicted upon him; and, after six years, poor and worn 
down by unceasing trials, he returned to Spain, where the influence 
_ of his friends at court procured the restoration of his property. 


CHAPTER V. 
1589 — 1607. 


LUIS DE VELASCO-—THE SECOND— BECOMES VICEROY. — DE- 
LIGHT OF THE MEXICANS. — FACTORIES REOPENED — CHICHI- 
MECAS — COLONIZATION. — ALAMEDA — INDIANS TAXED FOR 
EUROPEAN WARS. — COMPOSITION — FOWLS — ACEBEDO VICE- 
ROY.—— EXPEDITION TO NEW MEXICO.——INDIAN AMELIORATIONS. 
——DEATH OF PHILIP II.—NEW SCHEME OF HIREING INDIANS. 
— CALIFORNIA. — MONTESCLAROS VICEROY. — INUNDATION. — 
ALBARRADA. 


Don Luis pE VELASCO, — THE SECOND, — ConDE DE SANTIAGO, 


VIII. Vicrroy or New SPAIN. 
1589 — 1595. 


Luis pE Vezasco, Count de Santiago, was the son of the 
second viceroy of New Spain, and during the administration of his 
father, as well as for some years afterwards, had resided in Mexico 
where he filled several offices, and especially that of corregidor of 
Zempoala. He was not on friendly terms with the last viceroy, 
Zuniga, for he had suddenly quitted New Spain in the same vessel 
that brought his predecessor to America. Upon his arrival at the 
Spanish court he was sent as ambassador to Florence; and the 
exaggerated news of the supposed civil war in Mexico having been 
received just as he returned from his mission, Philip determined 
to send him back to New Spain. This decision was, no doubt, 
founded upon Velasco’s intimate acquaintance with Mexico and its 
people, with whom his interests had been so long bound up that 
he might almost be regarded as a native of the country. 

On the 25th of January, 1590, Velasco entered the capital with 
more pomp and rejoicing than had ever attended the advent of 
previous viceroys, for the Mexicans looked upon him as a country- 
man. As soon as he was seated in power his first acts demon- 


FACTORIES REOPENED — CHICHIMECAS — COLONIZATION. 171 


strated his good sense and mature judgment. His wish was to 
develope the country ; to make not only its mineral and agricultural 
resources available to Spain, but to open the channels through 
which Jabor could obtain its best rewards. He therefore ordered 
the manufactories of coarse stuffs and cloths which had been es- 
tablished by Mendoza to be once more opened, after the long 
period in which the Spanish mercantile influence had kept them 
shut. This naturally produced an excitement among the inter- 
ested foreign traders, but the viceroy firmly maintained his deter- 
mination to punish severely any one who should oppose his decree. 
In 1591, the troublesome Chichimecas, of whose disturbances 
we have already spoken in other chapters, again manifested a 
desire to attack the Spaniards. They were congregated in strongly 
armed bands in the neighborhood of Zacatecas, and menaced the 
Spanish population living in the neighborhood of the rich mines. 
Travellers could not pass through the country without a military 
escort. Strong garrisons had been placed by the government on 
the frontiers, and merciless war declared against them, but all was 
unavailing to stop their marauding expeditions among the whites. 
In this year, however, they sent commissioners to treat with the 
Spaniards in Mexico, and after confessing that they were tired of 
a war which they found useless, they consented to abstain from 
further molestation of the district, provided the viceroy would agree 
to furnish them with a sufficiency of meat for their support. Ve- 
lasco of course consented to this demand of the cattle stealers, and, 
moreover, obtained their consent to the admission among them of 
a body of Tlascalans who would instruct them in a civil and chris- 
tian mode of life. Four hundred families of these faithful friends 
of the Mexicans were selected for this colony; and, together with 
some Franciscan friars, they settled in four bodies so as to form an 
equal number of colonies. One of these settlements was made on 
the side of a rich mineral hill and took the name of San Luis 
Potosi, —the second formed San Miguel Mesgitic,—the third 
San Andres, — and the fourth Colotlan. Such was the origin of 
these towns, in which the two tribes lived for many years in perfect 
harmony, but without intermingling or losing their individuality. 
_ Another attempt was also made, as had been done previously, to 
gather the dispersed bands of Mexican and Otomi Indians into 
villages and settlements, where they would gradually become ac- 
customed to civilized life. Velasco, like his predecessor Moya, 
consulted with the curas and the people who were best acquainted 
with the temper of these races, and learned that they still opposed 


172 ALAMEDA—INDIANS TAXED FOR EUROPEAN WARS. 


humane efforts for civilization, preferring the vagabond life they 
had so long led and which had now become necessary and natural. 
Nevertheless he thought it his duty to try the experiment. But 
the first Otomi who was reduced to the necessity of abandoning 
his nomadic habits and building for himself a regular habitation, 
not only destroyed his wife and children, but terminated his own 
existence by hanging. The viceroy then suspended his operations 
and reported the untoward result, together with the opinion of his 
advisers, to the court of Spain. 

Velasco, ever anxious not only for the amelioration of the con- 
dition of the Indians, but for the embellishment of the capital 
which was now growing into considerable importance, caused the 
ALAMEDA OF Mexico to be laid out and planted in 1593, for the 
recreation of the citizens. This magnificent grove, with its beauti- 
fully shaded avenues and walks,— embellished by fountains and 
filled with every thing that can give repose or comfort to the fa- 
tigued people who are anxious to steal off awhile from the toil and 
bustle of a large city, — still exists in Mexico as an evidence of 
the taste and liberality of the viceroy, and will be more particu- 
larly described, hereafter, in that portion of this work which treats 
of the city of Mexico, and of the manners and customs of its 
inhabitants. | | 


In 1594, Philip the Second finding himself straitened for means 
to carry on the European wars in which he was engaged, recurred 
to the unfortunate and unjust system of forced loans to increase his 
revenue. He did not confine himself in this odious compulsory 
tax to the old world which was most concerned in the result of his 
wars, but instructed Velasco to impose a tribute of four reales or 
fifty cents upon Indians, in addition to the sum they already paid 
his majesty. Velasco reluctantly undertook the unwelcome task ; 
but anxious to lighten the burden upon the natives as much as 
possible, and, at the same time, to foster the raising of poultry and 
cattle among these people, he compounded the whole tax of a 
dollar which they were obliged to pay, for seven reales, or eighty- 
seven and a half cents and one fowl, which, at that time, was 
valued at a single real, or twelve and a half cents. This, it will be 
perceived, was amiably designed by the viceroy, but became imme- 
diately the subject of gross abuse. The Indians are slowly moved 
either to new modes of cultivation or to new objects of care, even 
of the most domestic and useful character. Instead of devoting 
themselves to the raising of poultry with the industrious thrift that 


COMPOSITION —FOWLS—ACEBEDO VICEROY. 173 


would have saved one-eighth of their taxation or twelve and a 
half per cent, they allowed the time to pass without providing 
the required bird in their homesteads, so that when the tax gath- 
erer arrived they were forced to buy the fowl instead of selling it. 
This of course raised the price, and the consequence was that the 
Indian was obliged often to pay two or three reales more than the 
original amount of the whole taxation of one dollar! It is related 
that one of the oidores who had taken eight hundred fowls, re- 
served two hundred for the consumption of his house, and through 
an agent sold the rest at three reales, or thirty-seven and a half 
cents each, by which he contrived to make a profit of two hundred 
per cent. Various efforts were made to remedy this shameful 
abuse or to revoke the decree, but the system was fouud to be too 
profitable among the officials, to be abandoned without a severe 
struggle. We are unable to discover that the viceroy, in this in- 
stance, used his authority to restore the Indians to their original! 
rights. 

In 1595, it was determined to colonize the supposed kingdom of 
Quivara, which now received the name of New Mexico, but, before 
the expedition could set forth under the command of Juan de 
Ofiate, Velasco received a despatch informing him that he had 
been named viceroy of Peru, and that his successor Don Gaspar 
de Zuniga Acebedo, Conde de Monterey, would soon appear in 
the colonial metropolis. 


Don Gaspar DE ZuNiegA AcEBEDO, ConpE DE MonTeEREYy, 
IX. Vicrroy or New Spain. 


1595 — 1603. 


The Count of Monterey arrived at San Juan de Ulua on the 18th 
‘of September, 1595, and on the 5th of the following November, 
entered the capital as viceroy. At first he exhibited a cold and 
apathetic temper, and appeared to take but little interest in the 
affairs of the government; but it is supposed, that being a prudent 
and cautious man, he was in no haste to underake the direction of 
affairs whilst he was altogether unacquainted both with the temper 
of the people and the nature of their institutions. An early mea- 
sure, however, of his administration deserves to be recorded and 
remembered. He found the Indians still suffering and complaining 
under the odious fowl tax, created by his predecessor for the pro- 


tection of domestic industry, but which had been perverted for the 
23 - 


174 EXPEDITION TO NEW MEXICO. 


selfish and avaricious purposes of the receivers. He immediately 
abolished this impost, and diminished the whole amount of taxation 
upon the Indians. 

In consequence of the loss of the galeon from the Philipines, 
which we have related, the king ordered an expedition, under the 
command of General Sebastian Viscaino, to examine and scour 
the coasts of the Californias, where it was alleged the precious 
metals, and, especially, the most valuable pearls would be found 
in abundance. Viscaino recruited a large number of follow- 
ers in Mexico for this enterprise, and set sail with three vessels, 
in 1596, from Acapulco. The adventurers coasted the territory 
for a considerable time without finding a suitable location in which 
they might settle advantageously, until, at length, they disem- 
barked in the port of La Paz, whence, however, they soon departed 
for want of provisions and supplies of every kind. 

Meanwhile the Count of Monterey examined into the state of the 
expedition to New Mexico, which he found had been projected and 
partly prepared by his predecessor. He made some changes in the 
plan agreed on between Velasco and Ofiate, and, in order to ex- 
hibit his good will to the latter personage, he joined with him, in 
the enterprise, his relation Vicente Saldivar, who had gathered 
a number of emigrants for these remote and northern regions. 
People were tempted to abandon their homes by the reports of ex- 
traordinary mineral wealth which was to be obtained in these unex- 
plored portions of New Spain; and, accordingly, when the stand- 
ard of the expedition was raised in the great square of the capital, 
crowds of men with their families flocked around it to enlist for the 
hazardous and toilsome service. 

The first news received from the emigrant colonists, when they 
reached Caxco, two hundred leagues from the capital, was disas- 
trous. Quarrels had originated among the adventurers, who as- 
serted that the terms of the expedition had not been complied with 
faithfully. As soon as the viceroy heard of the discontent, he 
despatched Don Lope de Ulloa as a pacificator, to the inflamed 
band which was quickly reduced to harmony and persuaded to 
continue its journey to the promised land. At length the weary 
emigrants reached the boasted El Dorado; but finding the reports 
of mineral wealth altogether exaggerated, and doubting the advan- 
tage of residing with their families permanently in such distant out- 
posts, many of them retraced their way southward to regions that 
were more densely populated. 

In 1598, another effort was resolved on to gather the dispersed 


INDIAN AMELIORATIONS — DEATH OF PHILIP II. 175 


and refractory vagabond Indians who wandered about the territory 
under the name of Mexicans and Otomies. Whilst they main- 
tained their perfectly nomadic state it was evident that they were 
useless either as productive laborers for the Spaniards, or as objects 
of taxation for the sovereign. It was a wise policy, therefore, to 
attempt what was philanthropically called —their civilization ;— 
but upon this occasion, as upon all the others that preceded it, the 
failure was signal. Commissioners and notaries were selected and 
large salaries paid these officials to ensure their faithful services in 
congregatine the dispersed natives. But the government agents, 
who well knew the difficulty if not the absolute impossibility of 
achieving the desired object, amused themselves by receiving and 
spending the liberal salaries disbursed by the government, whilst 
the Indians still continued as uncontroled as ever. The Count 
of Monterey was nevertheless obstinately bent on the prosecution 
of this favorite policy of the king, and squandered, upon these vile 
ministerial agents, upwards of two hundred thousand dollars, with- 
- out producing the least beneficial result. In the following viceroy’s 
reign he was sentenced to pay the government this large sum as 
having been unwisely spent; but was finally absolved from its 
discharge by the court to which he appealed from the decision of 
his successor. , 

In the beginning of 1599, the news was received in Mexico of 
the death of Philip II. and of the accession of Philip III. This 
event was perhaps the most remarkable in the annals of the colony, 
during the last year of the sixteenth century, except that the town 
of Monterey in New Leon was founded, and that a change was 
made by the viceroy of the port of Vera Cruz from its former sickly 
site at la Antigua, to one which has since become equally unhealthy. 

The first three years of the seventeenth century were chiefly 
characterized by renewed viceroyal efforts among the Indians. 
The project of congregating the nomadic natives was abandoned, 
and various attempts were made to break up the system of 
repartimientos, which had been, as we have seen, the established 
policy of the colony if not of the king, ever since the conquest. 
If the Indians were abandoned to their own free will, it was 
Supposed that their habits were naturally so thriftless that they 
would become burthensome instead of beneficial to the Spanish 
colonists, and, ultimately, might resolve themselves into mere 

wanderers like the Otomies and their vagabond companions. Yet, 
it was acknowledged that their involuntary servitude, and the 
disastrous train of impositions it entailed, were unchristian and 


176 NEW SCHEME OF HIRING INDIANS — CALIFORNIA. 


unjust. There was a dilemma, in fact between idleness and 
tyranny; but the viceroy conceived it his duty to endeavor once 
more, with an honest zeal, to sustain the humane policy of freedom 
which was recommended not only by the sovereign but by the reli- 
gious orders who were supposed to know the natives best. Various 
projects were adopted to harmonize their freedom with a necessary 
degree of labor, in order to ensure them wages and support, whilst 
they were preserved together in organized societies. After the 
repartimentos were abrogated, the Indians were compelled to 
assemble, on every Sabbath, in the public squares of the villages 
and towns, where they made their contracts of service by the day. 
The viceroy himself, anxious to prevent fraud, assisted personally 
in the reunions at the plazas or squares of San Juan and Santiago. 
But it was all in vain. The proprietors, land owners, and agents, 
were opposed to the scheme. Brokers interposed, and, after 
hiring the Indians at moderate rates in contracts made with 
themselves, sub-let them to others on higher terms. And, at last, 
it is alleged that the unfortunate natives, seeing the bad operation 
of the viceroy’s kind intentions in their behalf, and finding their 
condition less happy when they had to take care of themselves 
than when they were taken care of, appealed to the Count of 
Monterey to restore the old system of repartumientos under which 
they were at least spared the trouble of seeking for task-masters 
and support. Indolent by nature; creatures of habit; and living 
in a country whose bosom afforded them spontaneously most of 
the luxuries required by such a class, they submitted to what, in 
fact, was the greatest evil of their lot, because it relieved them of 
the trouble of individual effort! 

In 1602, Philip III. commanded another expedition for the 
colonization and exploration of the Californias. It departed in 
three ships and a barque from Acapulco, on the fifth of May, 
under the command of Viscaino. Torribio Gomez Corban was 
the admiral of the little fleet, and Antonio Flores, pilot. From the 
day of its departure, it was driven by severe gales, but, at length, 
the port of Monterey was reached by the weary crews, who 
continued along the coast until they arrived at Cape Blanco de 
San Sabastian, somewhat beyond Cape Mendozino. There the 
voyagers were sorely attacked with scurvy which thinned their 
numbers to such an extent, that, of the whole, only six were able 
to do duty. With this scant equipment of men, the vessels 
reached Mazatlan, where the crews recruited their health; and, 
passing thence to Acapulco, the expedition once more landed in 


MONTESCLAROS VICEROY — INUNDATION — ALBARRADA. 177 


the midst of civilization and hastened back to the capital to give 
a bad report of the country which in our day and generation has 
become the El Dorado of the world. 

The Conde de Monterey, was transferred to the viceroyalty of 
Peru in 1603, and left the capital amid the general grief of a 
society whose cordial esteem he seems to have won and retained 
during his whole administration. 


Don Juan pE Menpoza y Luna, Marques pE MontTEscLaros, 
X. Viceroy oF New Spain. 
1603 — 1607. 


The advent of the Marques de Montesclaros to the viceroyalty 
of New Spain was distinguished by an unusual degree of tran- 
quillity throughout the colony. During the preceding adminis- 
trations most of the subjects of internal discontent were set at 
rest, and the aborigines who had been subjected to the yoke were 
now becoming accustomed to bear it. In 1604, the abundant 
rains in the valley of Mexico during the month of August, caused 
an inundation which greatly alarmed the population. The city and 
adjacent country were laid under water, and such was the general 
distress that the Marques solicited the opinions of skilful persons 
in regard to the canal of Huehuetoca, which had heretofore been 
spoken of as the only means of freeing the capital from destruction 
by the swollen flood of the lakes. The reports. made to him, 
however, represented the enterprise as one of immense labor and 
expense, as well as requiring a great length of time for its comple- 
tion. He therefore abandoned the project for the present, and 
merely repaired the albarrada or dyke which Velasco had already 
constructed. In addition to this precautionary measure he caused 
the calzadas, or raised turnpikes of Guadalupe and San Cristoval 
to be constructed, which, whilst they led to the open country be- 
yond the city, served, also, as additional barriers against the waters. 
After the completion of these highways, he next directed his at- 
tention to those of San Antonio and Chapultepec, which were 
quickly finished, and merited the name of ‘‘ Roman works,” for 
the massive strength and durability of their construction. Various 
other useful municipal works, such as aqueducts and sewers, en- 
gaged the notice of the viceroy until, in 1607; and after the 
proclamation of the Prince of Asturias (Philip IV.) by order of the 
king, he was ordered to pass from Mexico to Peru where he was 
charged with the duties of the viceroyalty. 


CHAPTER VI. 
1607 — 1621. 


SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF DON LUIS VELASCO—HIS GREAT 
WORK FOR THE DRAINAGE OF THE VALLEY. — LAKES IN THE 
VALLEY — DANGER OF INUNDATION. — HISTORY OF THE DE- 
SAGUE OF HUEHUETOCA. — OPERATIONS OF THE ENGINEERS 
MARTINEZ AND BOOT. — THE FRANCISCANS. — COMPLETION OF 
THE DESAGUE. —LA OBRA DEL CONSULADO. — NEGRO REVOLT. 
— EXTENSION OF ORIENTAL TRADE. — GUERRA VICEROY. — DE 
CORDOVA VICEROY. — INDIAN REVOLT. — CORDOVA FOUNDED. 


Dow Luis VELasco,—THE SEcoND, — ConpDE DE SANTIAGO AND 
First Marques DE SALINAS, 
XI. Viceroy or Mexico. His Sreconp ADMINISTRATION. 


1607 — 1611. 


Don Luis Veuasco had been seven years viceroy of Peru since 
he left the government of Mexico, when he was summoned once 
more to rule a country of which he felt himself almost a native. 
He was tired of public life, and being advanced in years would 
gladly have devoted the rest of his existence to the care of his 
family and the management of his valuable estates in the colony. 
But he could not refuse the nomination of the king, and at the age 
of seventy, once more found himself at the head of affairs in New 
Spain. 

The government of this excellent nobleman has been signalized 
in history by the erection of the magnificent public work, designed 
for the drainage of the valley, of which we spoke during the last 
viceroyalty. The results of Velasco’s labors were permanent, and 
as his work, or at least a large portion of it remains to the present 
day, and serves to secure the capital from the floods with which it is 
constantly menaced, we shall describe the whole of this magnificent 
enterprise at present, though our description will carry us, chrono- 
logically, out of the period under consideration, and lead us from 
the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. 


' Velasco had been sent to Peru eleven years before, and after governing it seven, 
had returned to reside in Mexico, when he was unexpectedly reappointed viceroy. 


LAKES IN THE VALLEY — DANGER OF INUNDATION. 179 


The valley of Mexico is a great basin, which although seven 
thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and of course 
subject to constant and rapid evaporation, is yet exceedingly humid 
for so elevated a region. No stream, except the small arroyo, or 
rivulet of 'Tequisquiac, issues from the valley, whilst the rivers Papa- 
lotla, Tezcoco, Teotihuacan, Guadalupe, Pachuca and Guautitlan 
pour into it and form the five lakes of Chalco, Xochimilco, Tezcoco, 
San Cristoval and Zumpango. ‘‘'These lakes rise by stages as they 
approach the northern extremity of the valley; the waters of Tez- 
coco, being, in their ordinary state, four Mexican varas and eight 
inches lower than the waters of the lake of San Cristoval, which 
again, are six varas lower than the waters of the lake Zumpango, 
which froms the northernmost link of this dangerous chain. The 
level of Mexico in 1803 was exactly one vara, one foot and one 
inch above that of the lake of Tezcoco,! and, consequently, was 
nine varas and five inches lower than that of the lake of Zum- 
pango; a disproportion, the effects of which have been more se- 
verely felt because the lake of Zumpango receives the tributary 
streams of the river Guautitlan, whose volume is more considerable 
than that of all the other rivers which enter the valley combined. 

“In the inundations to which this peculiarity in the formation of 
the valley of Mexico has given rise, a similar succession of events 
has been always observed. The lake of Zumpango, swollen by the 
rapid increase of the river Guautitlan during the rainy season, 
forms a junction with that of San Cristoval, and the waters of the 
two combined burst the dykes which separate them from the lake 
of Tezcoco. ‘The waters of this last again, raised suddenly more 
than a vara above their usual level, and prevented from extending 
themselves to the east and south-east, by the rapid rise of the 
ground in that direction, rush back towards the capital and fill the 
Streets which approach nearest to their own level. This was the 
case in the years 1553, 1580, 1604 and 1607, in each of which 
years the capital was entirely under water, and the dykes which 
had been constructed for its protection destroyed.’’? 

Such is a topographical sketch of the country accurately given 
by a careful writer; and to protect an important region so con- 
_ Stantly menaced with inundation, the viceroy now addressed him- 
self. Accordingly he commissioned the engineer Enrique Martinez, 
in 1607 to attempt the drainage of the lake of Zumpango, by the 


* The level of Tezcoco is now, according to Mihlenpfordt, five feet seven inches 
(Spanish) below that of the city of Mexico. 
? Ward’s Mexico in 1827, vol. 2, p. 282 et seq. 


180 HISTORY OF THE DESAGUE OF HUEHUETOCA. 


stupendous canal now known under.the name of the DesaGuE DE 
HvuEHUETOCA. 

“The plan of Martinez appears to have embraced two distinct 
objects, the first of which extended to the lakes of Tezcoco and San 
Cristoval, while the second was confined to the lake of Zumpango 
whose superfluous waters were to be carried into the valley of Tula 
by a subterraneous canal into which the river Guautitlan was like- 
wise compelled to flow. ‘The second of these projects only was 
approved by the government ; and the line of the canal having been 
traced by Martinez between the Cerro or hill of Sincoque and the 
hill of Nochistongo to the north-west of Huehuetoca, where the 
mountains that surrounded the valley are less elevated than in any 
other spot, —the great subterraneous gallery of Nochistongo was 
commenced on the 28th of November, 1607. Fifteen thousand 
Indians were employed in this work, and as a number of air shafts 
were sunk, in order to enable them to work upon the different 
points at once, in eleven months a tunnel of six thousand six hun- 
dred metres! in length, three metres five in breadth and four metres 
two in height, was concluded. 

‘From the northern extremity of this tunnel called la boca de 
San Gregorio, an open cut of eight thousand six hundred metres 
conducted the waters to the salto or fall of the river Tula, where, 
quitting the valley of Mexico, they precipitate themselves into that 
of Tula, from a natural terrace of twenty Mexican varas in height, 
and take their course towards the bar of Tampico where they enter 
the gulf of Mexico. An enterprise of such magnitude could hardly 
be free from defects, and Martinez soon discovered that the un- 
baked bricks, of which the interior of the tunnel was composed, 
were unable to resist the action of water, which, being confined 
within narrow limits, was at times impelled through the tunnel 
with irresistible violence. A facing of wood proved equally 
ineffectual, and masonry was at last resorted to; but even this, 
though successful for a time, did not answer permanently, because 
the engineer, instead of an elliptical arch, constructed nothing but 
a sort of vault, the sides of which rested upon a foundation of no 
solidity. ‘The consequence was that the walls were gradually un- 
dermined by the water, and that the vault itself in many parts 
fell in. | 

‘This accident rendered the government indifferent to the fate 
of the gallery which was neglected, and finally abandoned in the 


1 The metre is equal to thirty-nine thousand three hundred and seventy-one 
English inches. 


OPERATIONS OF THE ENGINEERS MARTINEZ AND BooT. 18] 


year 1623, when a Dutch engineer, named Adrian Boot, induced 
the viceroy to resume the old system of dyke and embankments, 
and to give orders for closing the tunnel of Nochistongo. A sud- 
den rise in the lake of Tezcoco caused these orders to be revoked, 
and Martinez was again allowed to proceed with his works which 
he continued until the 20th of June, 1629, when an event took 
place, the real causes of which have never been ascertained.” 

‘<’The rainy season having set in with unusual violence, Martinez, 
either desirous to convince the inhabitants of the capital of the 
utility of his gallery, or fearful, as he himself stated, that the fruits 
of his labor would be destroyed by the entrance of too great a vo- 
lume of water, closed the mouth of the tunnel, without communi- 
cating to any one his intention to do so. The effect was instanta- 
neous; and, in one night, the whole town of Mexico was laid 
under water, with the exception of the great square, and one of the 
suburbs. In all the other streets the water rose upwards of three 
feet, and during five years, from 1629 to 1634, canoes formed the 
only medium of communication between them. The foundations 
of many of the principal houses were destroyed; trade was para- 
lyzed ; the lower classes reduced to the lowest state of misery ; and 
orders were actually given by the court of Madrid to abandon the 
‘town and build a new capital in the elevated plains between 
Tacuba and Tacubaya, to which the waters of the lakes, even 
before the conquest, had never been known to extend. 

‘<The necessity of this measure was obviated by a succession of 
earthquakes in the dry year of 1634, when the valley was cracked 
and rent in various directions, and the waters gradually disap- 
peared; a miracle for which due credit should be given to the 
Virgin of Guadalupe, by whose powerful intercession it is said to 
have been effected. | 

*¢ Martinez, who had been thrown into confinement in 1629, was 
released upon the termination of the evils which his imprudence 
was said to have occasioned; and was again placed by a new vice- 
roy, —the Marques de Cerralvo, —at the head of the works by 
which similar visitations were to be averted in future. Under his 
superintendence the great dyke, or Calzada of San Cristoval was 
put in order,! by which the lake of that name is divided from that 
of Tezcoco. This gigantic work which consists of two distinct 
masses, the first, one league, and the second, one thousand five 
hundred varas in length, is ten varas in width or thickness 


'The Calzada of San Cristoval was originally erected, according to good author- 
ity, in the year 1605. See Liceo Mexicano, vol. 2, p. 6. 
24 


182 THE FRANCISCANS — COMPLETION OF THE DESAGUE. 


throughout, and from three and a half to four varas in height. It 
is composed entirely of stone, with buttresses of solid masonry on 
both sides, and three sluices, by which, in any emergency, a com- 
munication between the lakes can be effected and regulated at the 
same time. The whole was concluded, like the gallery of Nochis- 
tongo, in eleven months, although as many years would now be re- 
quired for such an undertaking. But in those days the sacrifice of 
life, and particularly of Indian life, in public works, was not re- 
' garded. Many thousands of the natives perished before the desague 
was completed; and to their loss, as well as to the hardships en- 
dured by the survivors, may be ascribed the horror with which the 
name of Huehuetoca is pronounced by their descendants. 

‘‘Jt is not our intention to follow the progress of the canal of 
Huehuetoca through all the various changes which occurred in 
the plans pursued with respect to it from 1637, when the direct:on 
of the work was again taken from Martinez and confided to the 
Franciscan monks, until 1767, when, under the viceroyalty of the 
Marques de Croix, the Consulado or corporate body of Mexican 
merchants, engaged to complete this great national undertaking. 
The necessity of converting the tunnel of Martinez into an open 
cut, had long been acknowledged, it having been found impossible 
to prevent the tunnel from being continually choked up by the 
sand and rubbish deposited by the water on its passage; but as 
the work was only prosecuted with vigor when the danger of an 
inundation became imminent, and was almost suspended in the dry 
years, two thousand three hundred and ten varas of the northern 
gallery remained untouched, after the expiration of one hundred 
and thirty years when the Consulado was intrusted with the 
completion of the arduous task. As the old line of the gallery 
was to be preserved, it became necessary to give the cut which 
was to be sunk, perpendicularly upon it, an enormous width at 
the top, in order to prevent the sides from falling in; and in the 
more elevated parts, between the mountains of Sincoque and the 
hill of Nochistongo, for the space of two thousand six hundred 
and twenty-four feet, the width, across, varies from two hundred 
and seventy-eight to six hundred and thirty feet, while the perpen- 
dicular depth is from one hundred and forty-seven to one hundred 
and ninety-six feet. The whole length of the cut from the sluice 
called the vertideros to the salto or fall of the river Tula, is sixty- 
“even thousand five hundred and thirty-seven feet or twenty-four 
thousand five hundred and thirty Mexican varas. The highest 
point of the hill of Nochistongo is that called Boveda Real, and it 


LA OBRA DEL CONSULADO—WNEGRO REVOLT. 183 


would be difficult when looking down from it, upon the stream 
below, and, following with the eye the vast opening through which 
it seeks an issue, to conceive that the whole is, indeed, the work 
of man, did not the mounds on either side, as yet but imperfectly 
covered with vegetation, and the regular outline of the terraces, 
denote both the recentness of its completion, and the impossibility 
of attributing it to any natural convulsion. 

‘The Obra del Consulado, as the opening cut is called, was 
concluded in the year 1789. It cost nearly a million of dollars ; 
and the whole expense of the drainage from 1607 to the beginning 
of the present century, including the various projects commenced 
and abandoned when only partially executed, —the dykes con- 
nected with the desague, — and the two canals which communicate 
with the lakes of San Cristoval and Zumpango, — is estimated at 
six millions two hundred and forty-seven thousand six hundred 
and seventy dollars, or one million two hundred and forty-nine 
thousand five hundred and thirty-four pounds. It is supposed that 
one-third of this sum would have proved sufficient to cover all the 
expenses, had Martinez been furnished in the first instance with 
the means of executing his project upon the scale which he had 
judged necessary; for it is in the reduced dimensions of the 
gallery of Nochistongo, which was never equal to the volume of 
water to which at particular seasons it afforded an outlet, that all 
the subsequent expenditure has originated.” ! 


We have judged it better to group together in this place all the 
facts relative to this most important national work,—so as to 
afford the reader a complete picture of the undertaking, — than to 
relate the slow and tedious history of the work as it advanced to 
completion during the reigns of many viceroys. The present 
condition of the desague and its advantages will be treated in 
another portion of this work; and we shall therefore revert at once 
to the year 1609, in which a large number of negroes rebelled 
against the Spaniards. It seems that the blacks in the neighbor- 
hood of Cordova, who were in fact slaves on many of the hiciendas 
or plantations, having been treated in an inhuman manner by their 
owners, rose against them in great force, and gathering together 
in. the adjacent mountains menaced their tyrannical task-masters 
with death, and their property with ruin. Velasco sent one hun- 
dred soldiers, one hundred volunteers, one hundred Indian archers, 


1 ‘Ward, vol. 2, p. 283, et seq. 


184 EXTENSION OF ORIENTAL TRADE — GUERRA VICEROY. 


together with two hundred Spaniards and Mestizos, to attack them 
in their fastnesses. Several skirmishes took place between the 
slaves and these forces, and at length the negroes yielded to the 
Spaniards, — craving their pardon, inasmuch as their “‘insurrection 
was not against the king,’? —and promising that they would no 
longer afford a refuge to the blacks who absconded from the 
plantations. Velasco at once granted their request, and permitted 
them to settle in the town of San Lorenzo. 

In 1610 and 1611, there were but few important incidents in the 
history of New Spain, which was now gradually forming itself into 
a regularly organized state, free from all those violent internal 
commotions, which nations, like men, are forced to undergo in 
their infancy. The viceroy still endeavored to ameliorate the 
condition of the Indians, and despatched a mission to Japan in 
order to extend the oriental commerce of Spain. ‘The true policy 
of Castile would have been, instead of crushing Mexico by colo- 
nial restrictions, to have raised her gradually into a gigantic state, 
which, situated in the centre of America, on the narrowest part of 
the continent between the two oceans, and holding in her veins the 
precious metals in exhaustless quantities, would have surely 
grasped and held the commerce of the east and of Europe. Such 
would seem the natural destiny of Mexico if we examine her 
geographical features carefully; nor do we venture too much in 
predicting that the time will come when that destiny will be 
fulfilled. 


Velasco was now well stricken in years and required repose. 


His master, appreciating his faithful services and his unques- 


tionable loyalty, added to his already well earned titles that of 


Marques of Salinas, and creating him president of the Council of | 


the Indies recalled him to Spain where he could pass in quiet the 
evening of his days, whilst he was also enabled to impart the 
results of his vast American experience to the king and court. 


Fray Garcia Guerra, ArcHBIsHop oF Mexico, 


XII. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1611 — 1612. 


Velasco, as an especial mark of royal favor, was desired to re- 
tain his power as viceroy until the moment of embarkation for 
Spain, and then to depose it in favor of the monk Garcia Guerra, 
who had been the worthy prior of a Dominican convent at Burgos 


DE CORDOVA VICEROY — INDIAN REVOLT. 185 


in Spain, until he was nominated to the Archepiscopal See of 
Mexico. His government was brief and altogether eventless. He 
became viceroy on the 17th of June, 1611, and died on the 22d of 
February in the following year, of a wound he received in falling 
as he descended from his coach. 


Don Dirco FernanpDEz DE Corpova, 
MarQuEs DE GUADALCAZAR. 


XIII. Vicrroy or New SPaIn. 
1612162} 


Upon the death of the last viceroy, the Audiencia, of course, 
took possession of the government during the interregnum ; — and, 
as it seems that this body of men was always doomed to celebrate 
its authority by acts of folly or cruelty, we find that soon after 
its accession to power the city was alarmed by the news of another 
outbreak among the negroes. ‘The people were panic struck. A 
terrible noise had been heard in the streets of the metropolis during 
the night, and, although it was proved that the disturbance was 
entirely caused by the entrance, during the darkness, of 4 large 
drove of hogs, the Audiencia determined, nevertheless, to ap- 
pease public opinion by the execution of twenty-nine male negroes 
and four negro women! ‘Their withered and fetid bodies were 
left to hang on the gallows, tainting the air and shocking the eyes 
of every, passer, until the neighborhood could no longer bear the 
sickly stench and imperiously demanded their removal. 


The Marques de Guadalcazar took possession of the viceroyalty 
on the 28th of October, 1612, and his government passed in quiet 
engaged in the mere ordinary discharge of executive duties during 
the first four years, subsequent to which an Indian insurrection of 
a formidable character broke out in one of the departments, under a 
chief who styled himself ‘‘ Son of the Sun and God of Heaven and 
Earth.” This assault was fatal to every Spaniard within reach of 
the infuriate natives, who broke into the churches, murdered the 
whites seeking sanctuary at their altars, and spared not even the 
ecclesiastics, who, in all times, have so zealously proved them- 
selves to be the defenders of their race. Don Gaspar Alvear, Gov- 
ernor of Durango, assembled a large force as soon as the viceroy 
informed him of the insurrection, and marched against the savages. 
After three months of fighting, executions and diplomacy, this func- 


186 CORDOVA FOUNDED. 


tionary succeeded in suffocating the rebellion; but he was probably — 
more indebted, for the final reconciliation of the Indians, to the 
persuasive talents of the Jesuits who accompanied the expedition, 
than to the arms of his soldiers. 

The remaining years of this viceroyalty are only signalized by 
the founding of the city of Cordova, — whose neighborhood is re- — 
nowned for the excellent tobacco it produces, — and for the con- 
struction of the beautiful aqueduct of San Cosmé which brings the 
sweet waters of Santa Fé to the capital. This monument to the 
intelligence and memory of Guadalcazar was completed in 1620; 
and, in March, 1621, the viceroy was removed to the government — 
of Peru. 


CHAPTER VIF. 
1621 — 1624. 


MARQUES DE GELVES VICEROY — HIS REFORMS — NARRATIVE OF 
FATHER GAGE.—GELVES FORESTALLS THE MARKET — THE 
ARCHBISHOP EXCOMMUNICATES MEXIA, HIS AGENT. — QUARREL 
BETWEEN GELVES AND THE ARCHBISHOP. — VICEROY EXCOM- 
MUNICATED. — ARCHBISHOP AT GUADALUPE — HE IS ARRESTED 
AT THE ALTAR— SENT TO SPAIN. ——MEXIA THREATENED. — 
MOB ATTACKS THE PALACE —IT IS SACKED. —VICEROY ES- 
CAPES. —— RETRIBUTION. 


Don Dirco Carttto Menpoza y PIMENTEL, 
Count pE Prizco anp Marques DE GELVES, 


XIV. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1621 = 1624. 


Upon the removal of the Marques of Guadalcazar, and until the 
21st of September, 1621, the Audiencia again ruled in Mexico, 
without any interruption however, upon this occasion, of the public 
peace. The six months of the interregnum might, indeed, have 
been altogether forgotten, in the history of the country, had not the 
Audiencia been obliged to announce the reception of a royal cedula 
from Philip IV., communicating the news of his father’s death, and 
commanding a national mourning for his memory. In September, 
the new viceroy arrived in the capital, and immediately caused the 
royal order to be carried into effect and allegiance to be sworn 
solemnly to Philip IV. as king and lord of Old and New Spain. } 

The Marques de Gelves was selected by the sovereign for the 
reputation he bore in Spain as a lover of justice and order, — 
qualities which would ensure his utility in a country whose quiet- 
ness, during several of the last viceroyal reigns, had indicated 
either a very good or a very bad government, which it was im- 
possible for the king to examine personally. Accordingly Gelves 


‘ “Como Rey,y Senor de las Espaiias, ”’ says the authority. 


- 


188 GELVES FORESTALLS THE MARKET. 


took the reins with a firm hand. He found many of the depart- 
ments of government in a bad condition, and is said to have 
reformed certain abuses which were gradually undermining the 
political and social structure of the colony. In these duties the 
two first years of his viceroyalty passed away quietly; but Gelves, 
though an excellent magistrate so far as the internal police of the 
country 1s concerned, was, nevertheless, a selfish and avaricious 
person, and seems to have resolved that his fortune should prosper 
by his government of New Spain. 

The incidents which we are about to relate are stated on the 
authority of Father Gage, an English friar who visited Mexico in 
1625; and whose pictures of the manners of the people correspond 
so well with our personal knowledge of them, at present, that we 
are scarcely at liberty to question his fidelity as a historian. 1 

In the year 1624, Mexico was, for a time, in a state of great 
distraction, and well nigh revolted from the Spanish throne. The 
passion for acquiring fortune, which had manifested itself some- 
what in other viceroys, seems in Gelves unbounded. He resolved 
to achieve his end by a bold stroke; and, in 1623, having deter- - 
mined to monopolize the staff of life among the Indians and creoles, 
he despatched one of the wealthiest Mexicans, Don Pedro de 
Mexia, to buy up corn in all the provinces at the rate of fourteen 
reales, the sum fixed by law at which the corn was sold in 
times of famine. The farmers, who, of course, knew nothing of 
Mexia’s plan readily disposed of their corn, with which the artful 
purveyor filled his store houses all over the country. After the 
remnant of the crop was brought to market and sold, men began 


1<«¢ A new survey of the West Indies, or The English American, his Travels by 
land and sea; by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, see p. 176.” It is due to impar- 
tial history and to the memory of the Marques de Gelves to state that a different 
account of these occurrences is given by Ramon J. Alcaraz, a modern Mexican 
writer in the Liceo Mexicano, vol. 2, p. 120. Alcaraz fortifies his views by some 
documents, and by a justificatory commentary of the Marques himself. But he, 
like Gage, does not state his authorities. The story as related by the English friar 
is very characteristic of the age, and, si none vero eben trovato. Those who are 
anxious to discover the innocence or guilt of the viceroy, with certainty, will have 
a difficult task in exploring the Spanish manuscripts of the period. The British 
traveller Gage, was on the spot in the year after the events occurred, and his subsequent 
abandonment of the Catholic church would not be likely to lead him into the 
espousal of the archbishop de la Serna’s cause against the viceroy. . 

Cavo in his work entitled — ‘‘ Tres Siglos de Mexico, ’’ — states that the account 
he gives of this transaction is taken from five different narratives of it which were 
published at the time of its occurrence —three in favor of the viceroy and two 
sustaining the cause of the archbishop. In the last two, he alleges, that all the 
imputations against the archbishop were disproved, and that all the charges 
against the viceroy were sustained by solid argument. 


THE ARCHBISHOP EXCOMMUNICATES MEXIA, HIS AGENT. 189 


to compare notes, and suddenly discovered that corn was no where 
to be procured, save from the granaries of Mexia. ‘The poor 
began to murmur, the rich began to complain; and the tariff of 
fourteen reales was demanded from the viceroy.”? But he, the 
secret accomplice of Mexia, decided, that as the crops had been 
plentiful during the year, it could not be regarded as one of 
scarcity according to the evident intention of the law, so that it 
would be unfair to reduce the price of grain to that of famine. 
And thus the people, balked in their effort to obtain justice from 
their ruler, though suffering from extreme imposition, resolved to 
bear the oppression, rather than resort to violence for redress. 

After awhile, however, the intimacy between Gelves and Mexia 
became more apparent as the confederates supposed they had less 
cause for concealment; and the poor, again, besought the viceroy 
for justice and the legal tariff. But the temptation was too great 
for the avaricious representative of the king. He again denied 
their petition ; and, then, as a last hope, they resorted to a higher 
power, which, in such conflicts with their rulers, had usually 
been successful. 

In those days, Don Alonzo de la Serna, a man of lofty character 
and intrepid spirit, was archbishop of Mexico, and perceiving the 
avaricious trick of the viceroy and his pimp, threw himself on the 
popular side and promptly excommunicated Mexia. But the 
sturdy merchant, protected by viceroyal authority, was not to be 
conquered by so immaterial a thing as a prelate’s curse placarded 
on the door of a cathedral. He remained quietly ensconced in his 
house, despatched orders to his agents, and even raised the price 
of his extravagant bread stuffs. For a moment, perhaps, De la 
Serna was confounded by this rebellious son of the church, yet the 
act convinced him, if indeed, he entertained any doubt on the 
subject, that Mexia was backed by the viceroy, and, consequently, 
that any further attempts would bring him in direct conflict with 
the government. Nevertheless, a man like him was not to be 
easily alarmed or forced to retreat so quickly. The church, 
Supreme in spiritual power, would never yield, especially in a 
matter of popular and vital concern, and the archbishop, therefore, 
determined to adopt the severest method at once, and by an order of 
cessatio divinis, to stop, immediately, all religious worship through- 
out the colony. This was a direful interdict, the potency of which- 
can only be imagined by those who have lived in Catholic 
countries whose piety is not periodically regulated upon the 


principle of a seven day clock, but where worship is celebrated 
25 


190 QUARREL BETWEEN GELVES AND THE ARCHBISHOP, 


from hour to hour in the churches. The doors of chapels, cathe- 
drals and religious buildings were firmly closed. A death-like 
silence prevailed over the land. No familiar bells sounded for ma- 
tins or vespers. The people, usually warned by them of their hours 
of labor or repose, had now no means of measuring time. The 
priests went from house to house, lamenting the grievous affliction 
with which the country was visited and sympathizing cordially 
with the people. The church mourned for the unnatural pains her 
rebellious son had brought upon her patient children. But still 
the contumacious Mexia sold his corn and exacted his price ! 

At length, however, popular discontent became so clamorous, 
that even among this orderly and enduring people, the life of the 
viceroy’s agent was no longer safe. He retreated therefore from his 
own dwelling to the palace, which was strongly guarded, and de- 
manded protection from Gelves. The viceroy admitted him and — 
took issue with the archbishop. He immediately sent orders to 
the priests and curates of the several parishes, to cause the orders 
of interdict and excommunication to be torn from the church walls, — 
and all the chapels to be thrown open for service. But the resolute 
clergy, firm in their adherence to the prelate, would receive no 
command from the viceroy. Finding the churches still closed, 
and the people still more clamorous and angry, Gelves commanded 
De la Serna to revoke his censures; but the archbishop answered, 
that ‘‘ what he had done was but an act of divine justice against a 
cruel oppressor of the poor, whose cries had moved him to com- 
passion, and that the offender’s contempt for his excommunication 
had deserved the rigor of both of his censures, neither of which he 
would recal until Don Pedro de Mexia submitted himself reverently 
to the church, received public absolution, and threw up the uncon- ~ 
scionable monopoly wherewith he had wronged the common- 
wealth.” ‘But,’ says the chronicle of the day, ‘‘ the viceroy, 
not brooking the saucy answer of a churchman, nor permitting him 
to imitate the spirit of the holy Ambrose against the Emperor Theo- 
dosius,”’ forthwith sent orders to arrest De la Serna, and to carry 
him to Vera Cruz, where he was to be confined in the castle of San 
Juan de Ulua until he could be despatched to Spain. The arch- 
bishop, however, followed by a long train of his prebends, priests, 
and curates, immediately retired from the capital to the neighboring 
village of Guadalupe, but left a sentence of excommunication on 
the cathedral door against the viceroy himself! This was too 
much for the haughty representative of the Spanish king to bear 
without resentment, and left no means open for conciliation between 


VICEROY EXCOMMUNICATED — ARCHBISHOP AT GUADALUPE. 191 


church and state. Gelves could as little yield now, as De la Serna 
could before, and of course, nothing remained for him but to lay 
violent hands on the prelate wherever he might be found. His 
well paid soldiers were still faithfully devoted to the viceroy, and 
he forthwith committed the archbishop’s arrest to a reckless and 
unscrupulous officer named Tirol. As soon as he had selected a 
band of armed men, upon whose courage and obedience he could 
rely, this person hastened to the village of Guadalupe. In the 
meantime the archbishop was apprised of his coming and prepared 
to meet him. He summoned his faithful clergy to attend in the 
sanctuary of the church, clad in their sacred vestments. For the 
first time, after many a long and weary day, the ears of the people 
were saluted by the sound of bells calling them to the house of 
God. Abandoning their business, some of them immediately filled 
the square, eagerly demanding by what blessed interposition they 
had been relieved from the fearful interdict, — while others thronged 
the doors and crowded the aisles of the long forsaken chapel. The 
candles on the altar were lighted; the choir struck up a solemn 
hymn for the church; and, then, advancing along the aisle in gor- 
geous procession, De la Serna and his priestly train took up their 
position in front of the tabernacle, where, crowned with his mitre, 
his crozier in one hand, and the holy sacrament in the other, this 
brave prelate awaited the forces which had been sent to seize him. 
It is difficult to say, if De la Serna designed by so imposing a 
spectacle to strike awe into the mind of the sacrilegious soldier, or 
whether he thought it his duty to be arrested, if arrested he must 
be, at that altar he had sworn to serve. It is probable, however, 
from his exalted character and courage, that the latter was the true 
motive of his act, and if so, he met his fate nobly in the cause of 
justice and religion. 

_ Tirol was not long in traversing the distance between Mexico 
and Guadalupe. As soon as he arrived, he entered the church 
accompanied by his officers and seemed appalled by the gorgeous 
and dramatic display round the shrine. Not a whisper was heard 
in the edifice as the crowd slowly parted to make way for the 
soldiers, who advanced along the aisle and humbly knelt, for a mo- 
ment, at the altar in prayer. This done, Tirol approached De la 
Serna, and with “fair and courteous words” required him to lay 
down the sacrament, to quit the sanctuary, and to listen to the 
orders issued in the royal name. The archbishop abruptly refused 
to comply, and answered, that ‘“‘As the viceroy was excommuni- 
cated he regarded him as beyond the pale of the church and in no 


192 HE IS ARRESTED AT THE ALTAR— SENT TO SPAIN. 


way empowered to command in Mexico; ”’ he, therefore, ordered 
the soldiers, as they valued the peace of their souls, to desist from 
infringing the privileges of the church by the exercise of secular 
power within its limits, and, he finally declared ‘that he would, 
on no account, depart from the altar unless torn from it with the 
sacrament.’’? Upon this Tirol arose, and read the order for his 
arrest, describing him as a ‘traitor to the king, ’a disturber of the 
peace, and a mover of sedition in the commonwealth.” 

De la Serna smiled contemptuously at the officer as he finished, 
and taunted him with the viceroy’s miserable attempt to cast upon 
the church the odium of sedition, when his creature Mexia was, in 
fact, the shameless offender. He conjured Tirol ‘‘not to violate 
the sanctuary to which he had retreated, lest his hand should be 
withered like that of Jeroboam, who stretched forth an arm against 
the prophet of the Lord at the altar! ”’ 

Tirol seems to have been a man upon whose nerves such appeals 
had but little effect. He was a blunt soldier, who received the 
orders of his superiors and performed them to the letter. He had 
been ordered to arrest the archbishop wherever he found him, and 
he left the ecclesiastical scandal to be settled by those who sent 
him. Beckoning to a recreant priest who had been tampered 
with and brought along for the purpose, he commanded him in 
the king’s name, to wrest the sacrament from the prelate’s hand. 
The clergyman, immediately mounting the steps of the altar, 
obeyed the orders, and the desecrated bishop at once threw off his 
pontifical robes and yielded to civil power. The cowardly Mexi- 
cans made no attempt to protect their intrepid friend, who, as he 
left the sanctuary, paused for a moment and stretched his hands in 
benediction over the recreants. Then bidding an affectionate fare- 
well to his clergy, whom he called to witness how zealously he 
had striven to preserve the church from outrage, as well as the 
poor from plunder, he departed as a prisoner for Vera Cruz, 
whence he was despatched for Spain in a vessel expressly 
equiped for his conveyance. 


For a while the people were panic struck at this high-handed 
movement against the archbishop, but when the momentary effect 
had passed away and they began to reflect on the disgrace of the 
church as well as the loss of their protector, they vented their dis- 
pleasure openly against Mexia and the viceroy. The temper of the 
inasses was at once noticed by the clergy, who were still faith- 
ful to their persecuted bishop, nor did they hesitate to fan the 


MEXIA THREATENED — MOB ATTACKS THE PALACE. 193 


flame of discontent among the suffering Indians, Mestizos and 
Creoles, who omitted no occasion to express their hatred of the 
Spaniards, and especially of Tirol, who had been the viceroy’s tool 
in De la Serna’s arrest. A fortnight elapsed after the occurrences 
we have just detailed, and that daring officer had already delivered 
his prisoner at Vera Cruz, and returned to Mexico. Popular 
clamor at once became loud against him; whenever he appeared in 
public he was assailed with curses and stones; until, at last, an 
enraged mob attacked him in his carriage with such violence that 
it was alone owing to the swiftness of the mules, lashed by the 
affrighted postillion, that he escaped into the viceroyal palace, 
whose gates were immediately barred against his pursurers. 
Meantime the news had spread over town that this ‘* Judas,” — 
“this excommunicated dog,’?—had taken refuge with Gelves, 
and the neighboring market place became suddenly filled with an 
infuriated mob, numbering near seven thousand Indians, negroes 
and mulattoes, who rushed towards the palace with the evident in- 
tention of attacking it. Seeing this outbreak from a window, the 
viceroy sent a message to the assailants desiring them to retire, and 
declaring that Tirol had escaped by a postern. But the blood of the 
people was up, and not to be calmed by excuses. At this junc- 
ture several priests entered the crowd, and a certain Salazar was 
especially zealous in exciting the multitude to summary revenge. 
The pangs of hunger, were, for a moment, forgotten in the more 
bitter excitement of religious outrage. By this time the mob ob- 
tained whatever arms were nearest at hand. Poles, pikes, pistols, 
guns, halberds, and stones were brought to the ground, and fierce 
onsets were made on every accessible point of the palace. Neither 
the judges nor the police came forward to aid in staying the riot 
and protecting Gelves: — ‘‘ Let the youngsters alone,” exclaimed 
the observers, ‘‘ they will soon find out both Mexia and Tirol, as 
well as their patron, and the wrongs of the people will be quickly 
redressed!?’ A portion of the mob drew off to an adjacent prison, 
whose doors were soon forced and the convicts released. : 

At length, things became alarming to the besieged inmates of 
the palace, for they seemed to be entirely deserted by the re- 
spectable citizens and police. Thereupon the viceroy ascended to 
the azotéa or flat roof of the palace with his guard and retainers, 
and, displaying the royal standard, caused a trumpet to be sounded 
calling the people to uphold the king’s authority. But the reply 
to his summons was still in an unrelenting tone — “ Viva el Rey! 
Muera el mal gobierno ; mueran los dos comulgados!”? Long 


wy 
on 


194 IT IS SACKED — VICEROY ESCAPES — RETRIBUTION. 


live the king! but down with the wicked government, and death 
to the excommunicated wretches!” These shouts, yelled forth 
by the dense and surging mob, were followed by volleys, discharged 
at the persons on the azotéa, who, for three hours, returned the 
shots and skirmished with the insurgents. Stones, also, were 
hurled from the parapet upon the crowd, but it is related in the 
chronicles of the time, that not a single piece of ordnance was 
discharged upon the people, ‘‘ for the viceroy, in those days, had 
none for the defence of his palace or person, neither had that great 
city any for its strength and security. ”’ 

So passed the noon and evening of that disastrous day ; but, at 
night fall, the baffled mob that had been unable to make any 
impression with their feeble weapons upon the massive walls of the 
palace, brought pitch and inflamable materials, with which they 
fired the gates of the viceroyal palace. The bright flames of these 
combustibles sent up their light in the still evening air, and, far 
and wide over the town spread the news that the beautiful city was 
about to be destroyed. Frightened from their retreats, the judges 
and chief citizens who had influence with the people rushed to the 
plaza, and, by their urgent entreaties, efforts were made to extin- 
guish the fire. But the palace gates had already fallen, and, over 
their smouldering ruins, the infuriated assailants rushed into the 
edifice to commence the work of destruction. The magistrates, 
however, who had never taken part against the people in their 
quarrels, soon appeared upon the field, and, by loud entreaties, 
stopped the saqueo. It was soon discovered that Mexia and Tirol 
had escaped by a postern, whilst the conquered viceroy, disguised 
as a friar, stole through the crowd to the Franciscan cloister, 
where, for many a day, he lay concealed in the sanctuary which 
his rapacious spirit had denied to the venerable De la Serna. 

So ended this base attempt of a Spanish nobleman and repre- 
sentative of royalty in America, to enrich himself by plundering the 
docile Mexicans. The fate of Mexia and Tirol is unknown. But 
Spanish injustice towards the colonies was strongly marked by the 
reception of the viceroy and the archbishop on their return from 
Madrid. Gelves, it is true, was recalled, but, after being graciously 
welcomed at court, was made ‘ master of the royal horse ; ” while 
the noble hearted De la Serna was degraded from his Mexican arch- 
prelacy and banished to the petty bishopric of Zamora in Castile! 


CHAPTER VIII. 


1624 — 1642. 


THE AUDIENCIA RULES IN THE INTERREGNUM. — CARILLO VISI- 
TADOR. — INQUISITORIAL EXAMINATION. — ACAPULCO TAKEN. 
— ATTACKS BY THE DUTCH. — REMOVAL OF THE CAPITAL PRO- 
POSED. — ARMENDARIZ VICEROY. — ESCALONA VICEROY.—PALA- 
FOX’S CONDUCT TO THE VICEROY. — PALAFOX VICEROY — HIS 
GOOD AND EVIL. | 


Don Ropericgo PacuEeco Osorio, Marqurs DE CERRALVO, 


XV. Viceroy oF New SPAIN. 
1624 — 1635: 


Upon the violent expulsion of the viceroy Gelves by the popular 
outbreak, narrated in the last chapter, the government of New 
Spain fell once more into the hands of the Audiencia during the 
interregnum. ‘This body immediately adopted suitable measures 
to terminate the disaffection. The people were calmed by the 
deposition of one they deemed an unjust ruler; but for a long time 
it was found necessary to keep on foot in the capital, large bands 
of armed men, in order to restain those troublesome persons who 
are always ready to avail themselves of any pretext for tumultuary 
attacks either against property or upon people who are disposed to 
maintain the supremacy of law and order. 

As soon as Philip IV. was apprised of the disturbances in his 
transatlantic colony, he trembled for the security of Spanish power 
in that distant realm, and immediately despatched Don Martin 
Carillo, Inquisitor of Valladolid, with unlimited power to examine 
into the riots of the capital and to punish the guilty participants in 
a signal and summary manner. It is not our purpose, at present, 
to discuss the propriety of sending from Spain special judges, in 
the character of Visitadores or Inquisitors, whenever crimes were 
committed by eminent individuals in the colony, or by large bodies 
of people, which required the infliction of decided punishment. 


196 INQUISITORIAL EXAMINATION. — ACAPULCO TAKEN. 


But it may be regarded as one of the characteristic features of the 
age, and as demonstrative of the peculiar temper of the king that 
an Inquisitor was selected upon this occasion for so delicate and 
dangerous a duty. It is true that the church, through the late arch- 
bishop, was concerned in this painful affair; but it little accords 
with the ideas of our age to believe it necessary that a subject of 
such public concern as the insurrection against an unjust and 
odious viceroy should be confined to the walls of an inquisition or 
conducted by one of its leading functionaries alone. Had the in- 
vestigation been intrusted exclusively to a civil and not an ecclesi- 
astical judge, it is very questionable whether he should have been 
sent from Spain for this purpose alone. Being a foreigner, at least 
so far as the colony was concerned, he could have scarcely any 
- knowledge of or sympathy with the colonists. Extreme impar- 
tiality may have been ensured by this fact; yet as the Visitador or 
Inquisitor departed, as soon as his special function ceased, he was 
never responsible for his decrees to that wholesome public opinion 
which visits the conduct of a judge with praise or condemnation 
during his life time when he permanently resides in a country, and, 
is always the safest guardian of the liberty of the citizen. 

It seems, however, that the Inquisitor administered his office 
_ fairly and even leniently in this case, for his judgments fell chiefly 
on the thieves who stole the personal effects of the viceroy during 
the sacking of the palace. The principal movers in the imsurrec- 
tion had absented themselves from the capital, and prudently re- 
mained in concealment until the Visitador terminated his examina- 
tions, inflicted his punishments upon. the culprits he convicted, and 
crossed the sea to report his proceedings at court. 


Carillo had been accompanied to New Spain by a new viceroy, 
Don Roderigo Pacheco Osorio, Marques of Cerralvyo, who arrived 
in the capital on the 3d of November, 1624, and assumed the 
government. He left the examination of the msurrection entirely 
in the hands of the Inquisitor and directed his attention to the 
public affairs of the colony. These he found peaceful, except that 
a Dutch squadron, under the command of the prince of Nassau 
attacked Acapulco, and the feeble city and garrison readily sur- 
rendered without resistance. The fleet held the city, however, 
only for a few days, and set sail for other enterprises. This 
assault upon an important port alarmed the viceroy, who, at once, 
sent orders to have the town immediately surrounded with a wall, 
and suitable forts and bastions erected which would guard it in all 


ATTACKS BY DUTCH — REMOVAL OF CAPITAL PROPOSED. 197 


subsequent attacks. These fortifications were hardly commenced 
when another Dutch fleet appeared before the town. But this time 
the visit was not of a hostile nature ; — it was an exhausted fleet, 
demanding water and provisions, after recovering which it resumed 
its track for the East Indies. Whilst the Spaniards were thus 
succoring and sustaining their enemies the Dutch, a dreadful 
famine scourged Sinaloa and neighboring provinces, carrying off 
upwards of eight thousand Indians. 

During the long reign of the present monarch, Philip IV., Spain 
was frequently at war with England, Holland, and France; and 
the Dutch, who inflicted dreadful ravages on the American coasts, 
“secured immense spoil from the Spaniards. In 1628, Pedro Hein, 
a Hollander of great distinction, placed a squadron in the gulf on 
the coasts of Florida to intercept the fleet of New Spain. The 
resistance made by the Spaniards was feeble, and, their vessels 
being captured by the Dutch, the commerce of Mexico experienced 
a severe blow from which it was long in recovering. 


In 1629, there were ecclesiastical troubles in the colony, 
growing out of an attempt by the higher order of the Spanish 
clergy to prevent the increase of the regular priesthood from among 
the natives of the country. They feared that in the course of time 
the dominion of the establishment would thus be wrested from their 
hands by the power of the Mexicans. The king, himself was 
appealed to on this subject and caused it to be examined into 
carefully. In 1631, in consequence of the repeated danger of the 
capital from floods, the project of removing the site from its present 
location, to the loftier levels between Tacuba and Tacubaya, was 
seriously argued before the people. But the interest of property 
holders, and inhabitants of the city would have been so seriously 
affected by this act, that the idea was abandoned. 


The remaining years of this viceroyalty were consumed in 
matters of mere local detail and domestic government, and in fact 
we know but little of it, save that the severe inundations of 1629 
caused the authorities to use their utmost efforts in prosecuting the 
work of the desague, as we have already seen in the general 
account given of that gigantic enterprise. In 1635 this viceroy’s 
reign terminated. 


26 


198 ARMENDARIZ VICEROY —ESCALONA VICEROY. 
s 


Don Lore Diaz pE Armenpariz, Marques DE CaDEREITA, 
XVI. Vicrroy or NEw Spain 
1635— 1640. 


The five years of this personage’s government were unmarked by — 
any events of consequence in the colony; except that in the last 
of them, — 1640, —he despatched an expedition to the north, 
where he founded in New Leon, the town of Cadereita, which the 
emigrants named in honor of their viceroy. 


Don Dirco Lopez PacHEeco CaBrera Y BopaDILia, 
DvuKE oF Escatona, Marques or VILBUA AND GRANDEE OF 


SPAIN OF THE FIRST CLASS. 


XVII. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1640— 1642. 


The Duke of Escalona succeeded the Marques of Cadereita, and 
arrived in Mexico on the 28th of June, 1640, together with the 
venerable Palafox, who came, in the character of Visitador, to 
inquire into the administration of the last viceroy whose reputation, 
like that of other chief magistrates in New Spain, had suffered 
considerably in the hands of his enemies. Whilst this functionary 
proceeded with his disagreeable task against a man who was no 
longer in power, the duke, in compliance with the king’s command 
ordered the governor of Sinaloa, Don Luis Cestinos, accompanied 
by two Jesuits, to visit the Californias and examine their coasts 
and the neighboring isles in search of the wealth in pearls and 
precious metals with which they were reputed to be filled. The 
reports of the explorers were altogether satisfactory both as to the © 
character of the natives and of the riches of the waters as well as 
of the mines, though they represented the soil as extremely sterile. 
The gold of California was reserved for another age. 

Ever since the conquest the instruction of Indians in christian 
doctrine had been confided exclusively to the regular clergy of the 
Roman Catholic church. The secular priests were, thus, entirely 
deprived of the privilege of mingling their cares with their monastic 
brethren, who, in the course of time, began to regard this as an 
absolute, indefeasible right, whose enjoyment they were unwilling 
to forego, especially as the obvenciones or tributes of the Indian 
converts, formed no small item of corporate wealth in their 
respective orders. The Indians were, in fact, lawful tributaries, 


PALAFOX’S CONDUCT TO THE VICEROY. 199 


not only of the whole church, in the estimation of these friars, but 
of the special sect or brotherhood which happened to obtain the 
first hold on a tribe or nation by its missionary residence among 
its people. Palafox requested the Duke of Escalona to deprive the 
monkish orders of this monopoly; a desire to which the viceroy 
at once acceded, inasmuch as he was anxious to serve the bishop 
in all matters pertaining to his religious functions. 

The kindly feeling of the viceroy does not appear to have been 
appreciated, or sincerely responded to by Palafox. This personage 
was removed in 1642, to the archiepiscopal see of Mexico, and 
under the pretext of installation in his new office and opening his 
tribunals, he visited the capital with the actual design of occupying 
the viceroyal throne to which he had been appointed! This was 
a sudden and altogether unexpected blow to the worthy duke, 
who was so unceremoniously supplanted. No one seems to have 
whispered to him even a suspicion of the approaching calamity, 
until the crafty Palafox assembled the oidores at midnight on the 
eve of Pentecost, and read to them the royal despatches containing 
his commission. His conduct to the jovial hearted duke, who was 
no match, in all probability, for the wily churchman, was not only 
insincere but _unmannerly, for, immediately after the assumption of 
his power at dead of night, he commanded a strong guard to 
surround the palace at dawn, and required the Oidor Lugo, to read 
the royal cedula to the duke even before he left his bed. The 
deposed viceroy immediately departed for the convent at Churu- 
busco, outside the city walls on the road to San Agustin de las 
Cuevas. All his property was sequestrated, and his money and 
jewels were secured within the treasury. 

The reader will naturally seek for an explanation of this political 
enigma, or base intrigue, and its solution is again eminently char- 
acteristic of the reign in which it occurred. It will be remembered 
that the Duke of Braganza had been declared King of Portugal, 
which kingdom had separated itself from the Spanish domination, 
causing no small degree of animosity among the Castilians against 
the Portuguese and all who favored them. The Duke of Escalona, 
unfortunately, was related to the house of Braganza, and the credu- 
lous Philip having heard that his viceroy exhibited some evidences 
of attachment to the Portuguese, resolved to supercede him by Pala- 
fox. Besides this, the Duke committed the impolitic act of ap- 
pointing a Portuguese, to the post of Castellan of St. Juan de Ulua; 
and, upon a certain occasion, when two horses had been presented 


to him by Don Pedro de Castilla, and Don Cristobal de Portugal, 


200 PALAFOX VICEROY—HIS GOOD AND EVIL. 


he unluckily, remarked that he liked best the horse that was offered 
by Portugal! It is difficult to believe that such trifles would affect — 
the destiny of empires, when they were discussed by grave states- 
men and monarchs. But such was the miserable reign of Philip 
IV.;— the most disastrous indeed, in the annals of Spain, except 
that of Roderic the Goth. Folly like this may justly be attributed 
to the imbecile king, who witnessed the Catalan insurection, the 
loss of Rousillon, Conflans, a part of Cordafia, Jamaica, and, above 
all, of Portugal; and who, moreover, recognized the independence 
of the Seven United Provinces. 


Don Juan pE Patarox y Menpoza, 
BisHop oF PurBLA— CuHosen ArcHBISHOoP oF Mexico, 
Visirapor oF New Spain, &c. &c., 


XVIII. Viczroy or New SPaIn. 
1642. 


The administration of Palafox as viceroy was of but short dura- 
tion. He occupied the colonial throne but five months, yet, during 
that brief space, he did something that signalized his name both 
honorably and disgracefully. He seems to have been ridiculously 
bent upon the sacrifice of all the interesting monuments which 
were still preserved from the period of the conquest as memorials 
of the art and idolatry of the Aztecs. These he collected from all 
quarters and destroyed. He was evidently no friend of the friars, 
but sought to build up and strengthen the secular clergy whose 
free circulation in the world brought them directly under the eyes 
of society, and whose order made them dependent upon that society, 
and not upon a corporation, for maintenance. During his short 
reign he manifested kindness for the Indians; caused justice to be 
promptly administered, and even suspended cert?in worthy oidores 
who did not work as quickly and decide as promptly as he thought 
they ought to; he regulated the ordinances of the Audiencia; pre- 
pared the statutes of the university; raised a large body of militia 
to be in readiness in case of an attack from the Portuguese ; visited 
the colleges under his secular jurisdiction ; and, finally, in proof of 
his disinterestedness, refused the salary of viceroy and visitador. 


CHAPTER IX. 
1642 — 1654. 


SOTOMAYOR VICEROY.— ESCALONA VINDICATED.—MONASTIC PRO- 
PERTY. — BIGOTRY OF PALAFOX. — GUZMAN VICEROY. — INDIAN 
INSURRECTION. — REVOLT OF THE TARAHUMARES. — SUCCESS 
OF THE INDIANS — INDIAN WARS.— DUKE DE ALBURQUERQUE 
VICEROY — ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE HIM. — COUNT DE BANOS 
VICEROY. — ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE.— ESCOBAR Y LLAMAS AND 
DE TOLEDO VICEROYS. — DEPREDATIONS OF BRITISH CRUISERS. 
—NUNO DE PORTUGAL VICEROY. 


Don Garcia SARMIENTO DE SOTOMAYOR, 
Count DE SALVATIERRA, Marques DE Sosroso, 


XIX. Viceroy or New SPaAun. 
1642 — 1648. 


Puitip IV. seems to have been more anxious to use Palafox as 
an instrument to remove the Duke of Escalona, than to empower 
him, for any length of time, with viceroyal authority; for, no sooner 
did he suppose that the duke was displaced quietly without leaving 
the government in the hands of the Audiencia, than he appointed 
the Conde de Salvatierra as his representative. This nobleman 
reached his government on the 23d of November, 1642, and Pala- 
fox immediately retired from his office, still preserving, however, 
the functions of Visitador. At the conclusion of this year the duke 
departed from Churubusco for San Martin, in order to prepare for 
his voyage home; and in 1643, this ill used personage left New 
Spain having previously fortified himself with numerous certificates 
of his loyalty to the Spanish crown, all of which he used so skil- 
fully in vindication before the vacillating and imbecile king, that 
he was not only exculpated entirely, but offered once more the 
viceroyalty from which he had been so rudely thrust. The duke 
promptly rejected the proposed restoration, but accepted the vice- 
royalty of Sicily. Before he departed for the seat of government, 


202 MONASTIC PROPERTY — BIGOTRY OF PALAFOX. 


he gave the king many wise councils as to his American colonies ; 
but, especially advised him to colonize the Californias. Don Pedro 
Portal de Casafiete was commissioned by Philip for this purpose. 

In 1644, there were already in Mexico twelve convents of nuns, 
and nearly an equal number for males, which, either by the unwise 
but pious zeal of wealthy persons, were becoming rich and ag- 
gregating to themselves a large amount of urban and rural property. 
Besides this the dependants upon these convents, both males and 
females, were largely increasing ;—all of which so greatly pre- 
judiced not only property but population, that the Ayuntamiento or 
City Council solicited the king not to permit the establishment in _ 
future of similar foundations, and to prohibit the acquisition of real 
estate by monasteries, inasmuch as the time might come when these 
establishments would be the only proprietors. 

Meanwhile Casafiete arrived in Mexico on his way to the shores 
of the Pacific. Salvatierra received him kindly and made proper 
efforts to equip him for the enterprise. The chiefs and governors 
of the interior were ordered to aid him in every way ; but just as 
he was about to sail, two of his vessels were burned, whereupon 
his soldiers dispersed, whilst the families of his colonists with- 
drew, in hope of being again soon summoned to embark. 

The civil government of Salvatierra passed in quietness ; but the 
domineering spirit of Palafox did not allow the church to remain 
at peace with the state. In 1647, this lordly churchman engaged 
in warm discussion with the Jesuits and other orders. Most scan- 
dalous scenes occurred in the churches of Puebla. Anathemas, 
excommunications, and all the artillery of the church were used 
against each other. Palafox persevered in his rancorous contro-_ 
versy as long as he remained in America, and even after his return 
to Europe, pursued his quarrel at the court of Rome. At the close 
of this year Salvatierra was removed to the viceroyalty of Peru. 


Don Marcos pre Torres y Rvuepa, 
Bisuorp oF YucATAN— GOVERNOR oF NEw SPAIN. 
XX. Viceroy oF New SPAIN. 


1648 — 1649. 


The rule of Torres y Rueda was brief and eventless. It ex- 
tended from the 13th of March, 1648, to the 22d of April, 1649, 
when the bishop-governor died, and was sumptuously interred in 
the church of San Agustin in the city of Mexico. 


a 
tat r 


GUZMAN VICEROY — INDIAN INSURRECTION. 203 


Don Luis Enriquez pe Guzman, Count DE ALVADELISTE. 
XXI. Viceroy or NEw Spain. 
1649 — 1654. 


The Audiencia ruled in New Spain until the 3d of July, 1650, 
the period of the Conde de Alvadeliste’s arrival in the capital. 
This nobleman had been, in fact, appointed by the king immedi- 
ately upon the transfer of the Conde de Salvatierra to Peru; but 
inasmuch as he could not immediately cross the Atlantic, the 
bishop of Yucatan had been directed to assume his functions ad 
interim. Alvadeliste, a man of amiable character and gentle man- 
ners, soon won the good opinion of the Spanish colonists and 
creoles. But if he was to experience but little trouble from his 
countrymen and their descendants, he was not to escape a vexa- 
tious outbreak among the northern Indians, who had remained 
quiet for so long that it was supposed they were finally and suc- 
cessfully subjected to the Spanish yoke. 

The viceroy had not been long installed when he received news 
of a rebellion against the Spaniards by the Tarahumares, who in- 
habited portions of Chihuahua and Sinaloa, and who hitherto 
yielded implicitly to the gentle and persuasive voice of the evangeli- 
cal teachers dwelling among them. ‘The portion of this tribe in- 
habiting Sinaloa, commenced the assault, but the immediate cause 
of the rebellion is not known. We are not aware whether they 
experienced a severe local government at the hands of the Span- 
lards, whether they were tired of the presence of the children of 
the Peninsula, or whether they feared that the priestly rule was 
only another means of subjecting them more easily to the crown 
of Castile. Perhaps all these causes influenced the rebellion. 
Already in 1648, the chief of the nation had compromised three 
other tribes in the meditated outbreak; but, lacking the concerted 
action of the Tepehuanes and other bands, upon whose aid they 
confidently counted, they resolved to attack, alone, the village of 
San Francisco de Borja, whose garrison and village they slaught- 
ered and burned. San Francisco was the settlement which sup- 
plied the local missions with provisions, and its loss was conse- 
quently irreparable to that portion of the country. 

As soon as the chief judge of Parral heard of this sanguinary 
onslaught he hastily gathered the neighboring farmers, herdsmen, 
and merchants, and hastened into the wilderness against the in- 
surgents, who fled when they had destroyed the great depot of 


204 REVOLT OF THE TARAHUMARES. 


the Spaniards. The troops, hardy as they were on these distant 
frontiers, were not calculated for the rough warfare of woodsmen, 
and after some insignificant and unsuccessful skirmishes with the 
marauders, the new levies retired hastily to their homes. 

Fajardo, governor of Nueva Biscaya, soon heard of the rebellion 
and of the ineffectual efforts to suppress it. He was satisfied 
that no time was to be lost in crushing the rebellion, and, accord- 
ingly marched with Juan Barraza, to the seat of war with an ade- 
quate force. The Indians had meanwhile left their villages and 
betaken themselves to the mountains, woods and fastnesses. Fa- 
jardo immediately burned their abandoned habitations and deso- 
lated their cultivated fields; and when the Indians, who were now 
satisfied of their impotence, demanded peace, he granted it on 
condition that the four insurgent chiefs of the rebellion should be 
surrendered for punishment. The natives, in reply, brought him 
the head of one of their leaders, together with his wife and child ; 
soon after another head was delivered to him, and, in a few days, 
the other two leaders surrendered. 

This, for a while, calmed the country; but in order to confirm 
the peace and friendship which seemed to be now tolerably well 
established, a mission was founded in the valley of Papigochi, in 
which the chief population of the Tarahumares resided. The 
reverend Jesuit, Father Bendin, was charged with the duty of 
establishing this benignant government of the church, and in a 
short time it appeared that he had succeeded in civilizing the 
Indians and in converting them to the christian faith. There 
were, nevertheless, discontented men among the tribes, whose 
incautious acts occasionally gave warning of the animosity which 
still lingered in the breasts of the Indians. The most prudent of 
the Spaniards warned the governor of Nueva Biscaya to beware a 
sudden or personal attack. But this personage treated the advice 
with contempt, and felt certain that the country was substantially 
pacified. Nevertheless, whilst things wore this aspect of seeming 
calm, three chiefs or caciques, who had embraced the Catholic 
faith, prepared the elements for a new rebellion, and, on the 5th 
of June, 1649, at daybreak, they attacked the dwelling of the 
missionaries, set fire to its combustible materials, and surrounding 
the blazing house in numbers, awaited the moment when the 
unsuspecting inmates attempted to escape. The venerable Bendin 
and his companions were quickly aroused, but no sooner did they 
rush from the flames than they were cruelly slain by the Indians. 
The church was then sacked. The valuables were secured and 


SUCCESS OF THE INDIANS. 205 


carried off by the murderous robbers, but all the images and 
religious emblems were sacrilegiously destroyed before the Indians 
fled to the country. 


Fajardo once more despatched Juan Barraza, with three hundred 
Spanish soldiers and some Indians against the rebel Tarahumares. 
But the tribe had, in its intercourse with the foreigners, acquired 
some little knowledge of the art of war and consequently did not 
await the expected attack in the open or level fields, where the 
Spanish cavalry could act powerfully against them. They re- 
tired, accordingly, to a rocky pass, flanked by two streams, 
which they fortified, at all points, with stone walls and other 
formidable impediments. Here they rested in security until the 
Spanish forces approached them; nor did they, even then abandon 
their defensive warfare. SBarraza, finding the Indians thus skil- 
fully entrenched behind barriers and ready to repel his attack, was 
unable, after numerous efforts, to dislodge them from their position. 
Indeed, he appears to have suffered serious losses in his vain 
assaults; so that, instead of routing the natives entirely, he found 
it necessary to withdraw his troops who were greatly weakened by 
losses, whilst the daring insurgents continually received auxiliary 
reinforcements. In this untoward state of affairs, Barraza resolved 
to make his escape, during the night, from such dangerous 
quarters, and, ordering his Indian allies to light the usual watch- 
fires, and keep up the ordinary bustle of a camp, he silently but 
gradually withdrew all his Spanish and native forces, so that at 
daybreak the Tarahumares found the country cleared of their foes. 

As soon as Fajardo heard of the forced retreat of Barraza he 
determined to take the management of the campaign in his own 
hands. But his military efforts were as unsuccessful as those of 
his unfortunate captain. The rainy season came on before he 
could make a successful lodgement in the heart of the enemy’s 
country, and his march was impeded by floods which destroyed the 
roads and rendered the streams impassable. Accordingly he 
retired to Parral, where he received orders from the viceroy to 
establish a garrison in Papigochi. 

The Spaniards found that their cruelty in the first campaign 
against these untamed savages had inflamed their minds against 
the viceroyal troops. They attempted, therefore, to use, once 
more, the language of persuasion, and, offering the insurgents a 
perfect amnesty for the past, prevailed upon the old inhabitants 


of the vale of Papigochi to return to their former residences, 
: 27 


206 INDIAN WARS — DUKE DE ALBURQUERQUE VICEROY. 


where, however, they did not long remain faithful to their promised 
allegiance. ‘The new garrison was established, as had been com- 
manded by the viceroy; but, in 1652, the relentless tribes, again 
seizing an unguarded moment, burned the barracks, and destroyed 
in the flames a number of Spaniards, two Franciscan monks, and 
a Jesuit priest. The soldiery of Barraza and the governor retired 
from the doomed spot, amid showers of Indian arrows. 


In 1653, the war was resumed. ‘The whole country was aroused 
and armed against these hitherto invincible bands. Other Indian 
tribes were subdued by the Spanish forces, and their arms were 
then, once more, turned upon the Tarahumares, at a moment when 
the Indian chiefs were distant from the field. But the absence of 
the leaders neither dismayed nor disconcerted these relentless 
warriors. The Spaniards were again forced to retire; and the 
viceroy caused an extensive enlistment to be undertaken, and large 
sums appropriated to crush or pacify the audacious bands. Before 
the final issue and subjugation, however, the Conde de Alvadeliste, 
received the king’s command to pass from Mexico to the govern- 
ment of Peru, and, awaiting only the arrival of his successor, he 
sailed from Acapulco for his new viceroyalty. 


Don Francisco FERNANDEZ DE LA CUEVA, 
DuKE DE ALBURQUERQUE, 
XXII. Vicrroy or New SPAIN. 
1654 — 1660. 


The Duke of Alburquerque, who had married the Dofia Juana, 
daughter of the former viceroy, Don Lope Diaz de Armendariz, 
arrived in Mexico on the 16th of August, 1654, as successor of 
Alvadeliste. His accession was signalized by unusually splendid 
ceremonies in the capital, and the new viceroy immediately 
devoted himself to the improvement of Mexico, as well as to the 
internal administration of affairs. He zealously promoted the pub- 
lic works of the country; labored diligently to finish the cathedral; 
devoted himself, in hours of leisure, to the promotion of literature 
and the fine arts; regulated the studies in the university; and 
caused the country to be scoured for the apprehension of robbers 
and vagabonds who infested and rendered insecure all the high- 
ways of the colony. Great numbers of these wretches were soon 
seized and hanged after summary trials. 


Fiat tA 


ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE HIM. 207 


In 1656, the British forces having been successful against 
Jamaica, the Mexicans were apprehensive that their arms would 
next be turned against New Spain; and accordingly Alburquerque 
fitted out an armada to operate against the enemy among the 
islands before they could reach the coast of his viceroyalty. This 


: _ well designed expedition failed, and most of the soldiers who en- 


gaged in it, perished. ‘The duke, unsuccessful in war, next turned 
his attention to the gradual and peaceful extension, northward, of 
the colonial emigration ; and, distributing a large portion of the 
territory of New Mexico among a hundred families, he founded 
the city of Alburquerque, and established in it several Franciscan 


missions as the nucleus of future population. 


The year 1659 was signalized in Mexico by one of those horrid 

dramas which occasionally took place in all countries into which 
the monstrous institution of the Inquisition was unfortunately 
naturalized, and fifty human victims were burned alive by order of 
the Audiencia. For the credit of the country it must be remem- 
bered that this was the first occurrence of the kind, but, either from 
curiosity or from a superior sense of duty, the dreadful pageant 
was not only witnessed by an immense crowd of eager spectators, 
but was even presided over by the viceroy himself. In 1660 the 
duke narrowly escaped death by the hands of an assassin. Whilst 
on his knees at prayer in a chapel of the cathedral, the murderer, 
—a youthful soldier seventeen years old,— stole behind him, and 
was in the act of striking the fatal blow when he was arrested. In 
less than twelve hours he had gone to account for the meditated 
crime. 
_ Alburquerque appears to have been popular, useful and intelli- 
gent, though, from his portrait which is preserved in the gallery of 
the viceroys in Mexico, we would have imagined him to be a gross 
sensualist, resembling more the usual pictorial representations of 
Sancho Panza than one who was calculated to wield the destinies 
of an empire. Nevertheless the expression of public sorrow was 
unfeigned and loud among all classes when he departed for Spain 
in the year 1660. 


208 COUNT DE BANOZ VICEROY—ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE. 


Don Juan pre Lryva y DE ta CeErDaA, 
Marques DE Lryva y DE LA Cerpa, Count DE Banos. 
XXIII. Vicrroy or New Spain. 


1660 — 1664. 


The successor of the Duke of Alburquerque entered Mexico on 
the 16th of September, 1660. Don Juan de Leyva y de la Cerda 
approached the colony with the best wishes and resolutions to ad- 
vance its prosperity and glory. His earliest efforts were directed 
to the pacification of the Tarahumares, whose insurrection was 
still entirely unquelled, and whose successes were alarmingly dis- 
astrous in New Mexico, whither they advanced in the course of 
their savage warfare. With the same liberal spirit that character- 
ized his predecessor, he continued to be the zealous friend of those 
remote, frontier colonists, and, in a short time, formed twenty-four 
villages. It was, doubtless, his plan to subdue and pacify the 
north by an armed occupation. 

In 1661 and 1662, the despotic conduct of the Spaniards to the 
Indians stirred up sedition in the south as well as at the north. 
The natives of Tehuantepec were, at this period, moved to rebel- 
lion, with the hope of securing their personal liberty, even if they 
could not reconquer their national independence. Spanish forces 
were immediately marched to crush the insurrection; but the soft 
children of the south were not as firmly pertinacious in resistance 
as their sturdier brothers of the northern frontier. More accessible 
to the gentle voices of an insinuating clergy, they yielded to the 
persuasive eloquence of the bishop Ildefonzo Davalos, who, ani- 
mated by honest and humane zeal for the children of the forest, 
went among the incensed tribes, and, by kindness, secured the 
submission which arms could not compel at the north. For this 
voluntary and valuable service the sovereign conferred on him the 
mitre of Mexico, which, in the year 1664, was renounced by 
Osorio Escobar. 

The only other event of note, during this viceroyalty, was an 
attempt at colonization and pearl fishing on the coasts of California 
by Bernal Pitiaredo, who seems rather to have disturbed than to 
have benefitted the sparse settlers on those distant shores. He was 
coldly received on his return by the viceroy, who formally accused 
him to the court for misconduct during the expedition. 

Don Juan de Leyva sailed for Spain in 1664, and soon after 
died, afflicted by severe family distresses, and,-especially by the 
misconduct of his son and heir. 


ESCOBAR Y LLAMAS AND DE TOLEDO VICEROYS. 209 


Don Diego Osorio Escopar y Luamas, BisHop or PurEB.a. 
XXIV. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1664. 


The reign of this ecclesiastic was remarkable for nothing except 
its extraordinarily brief duration. ‘The bishop entered upon his 
duties on the 29th of June, and resigned them in favor of his suc- 
cessor on the 15th of the next October. 


Don SEBASTIAN DE ToLepo, Marques DE MANCERA ; 


XXV. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1664 — 1673. 


New Spain enjoyed profound internal peace when Don Sebastian 
arrived in the capital on the 15th of October, 1664. But the 
calm of the political world does not seem to have extended to the 
terrestrial, for, about this period, occurred one of the few eruptions 
of the famous mountain of Popocatepetl,—the majestic volcano 
which lies on the eastern edge of the valley, and is the most 
conspicuous object from all parts of the upper table lands of 
Mexico. For four days it poured forth showers of stones from its 
crater and then, suddenly, subsided into quietness. 


In the beginning of 1666 a royal cedula was received from the 
queen apprising her faithful subjects of her husband’s death, and 
that during the minority of Charles II. the government would be 
carried on by her. The loss of Jamaica, during the last reign was 
irreparable for Spain. The possession of so important an island 
by the British, enabled the enemies of Castile to find a lurking 
place in the neighborhood of her richest colonies from which the 
pirates and privateers could readily issue for the capture of Spanish 
commerce or wealth. The armada of the Marques of Cadareita, 
was useless against the small armed craft which not only possessed 
great advantages in swiftness of sailing, but was able, also, to 
escape from the enemies’ pursuit or guns in the shallows along the 
coast into which the larger vessels dared not follow them. But 
the general war in Europe which had troubled the peace of the old 
world for so many years, had now drawn to a close, and a peace 
was once more, for a while re-established. The ambitious desires 
of the Europeans, were now, however, turned towards America, 
and, with eager and envious glances at the possessions of the 


210 DEPREDATIONS OF BRITISH CRUIZERS. 


Spaniards. The narrow, protective system of Spain, had, as we 
have related in our introductory chapter, closed the colonial ports 
against all vessels and cargoes that were not Spanish. This, 
of course, was the origin of an extensive system of contraband, 
which had doubtless done much to corrupt the character of the 

masses, whilst it created a class of bold, daring and reckless men, 
whose representatives may still be found, even at this day, in the 
ports of Mexico and South America. ‘This contraband trade not — 
only affected the personal character of the people, but naturally 
injured the commerce and impaired'the revenues of New Spain. — 
Accordingly the ministers in Madrid negotiated a treaty with 
Charles II. of England, by which the sovereigns of the two nations 
pledged themselves not to permit their subjects to trade in their 
colonies. Notwithstanding the treaty, however, Governor Lynch, 
of Jamaica, still allowed the equipment of privateers and smug- 
glers, in his island, where they were furnished with the necessary 
papers ; but the king removed him as soon as he was apprised of 
the fact, and replaced the conniving official by a more discreet and — 
conscientious governor. Nevertheless the privateers and pirates — 
still continued their voyages, believing that this act of the British 
government was not intended in good faith to suppress their 
adventures, but simply to show Spain that in England treaties 
were regarded as religiously binding upon the state and the 
people. They did not imagine that the new governor would, 
finally, enforce the stringent laws against them. But this per- 
sonage permitted the outlaws to finish their voyages without 
interference on the high seas, and the moment some of them landed, 
they were hanged, as an example to all who were still willmg to — 
set laws and treaties at defiance. | 


In 1670, the prolonged Tarahumaric war was brought to a close, 
by Nicolas Barraza. An Indian girl pointed out the place in 
which the majority of the warriors might be surprised ; and, all the — 
passes being speedily seized and guarded, three hundred captives 
fell into the victors’ hands. In 1673, the viceroy departed for 
Spain, after an unusually long and quiet reign of eight years. 


NUNO DE PORTUGAL VICEROY. 211 


Don PEpro Nuno Coton bE PortTvGAt, 
Duke or Veracuas anp Kwnigut or THE GOLDEN FLEECE, 


XXVI. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1673. 


The nomination of this distinguished nobleman and descendant 
of the discoverer of America, was unquestionably designed merely 
as a compliment to the memory of a man, whose genius had given 
a new world to Castile.! He was so far advanced in life, that it 
was scarcely presumed he would be able to withstand the hardships 
of the voyage or reach the Mexican metropolis. And _ such, 
indeed, was the result of his toilsome journey. His baton of 
office, —assumed on the 8th of December, 1673, —fell from his 
decrepit hand on the 13th of the same month. So sure was the 
Spanish court that the viceroy would not long survive his arrival, 
that it had already appointed his successor, and sent a sealed 
despatch with the commission, which was to be opened in the 
event of Don Pedro’s death. It thus happened that the funeral of 
one viceroy, was presided over by his successor; and the august 
ceremonial was doubtless more solemn from the fact that this 
successor was Rivera, who, at that time, was the archbishop 
of Mexico. 

The Duke of Veraguas of course neither originated any thing 
nor completed any public work that had been already commenced ; 
but the companions of his voyage to America, long remembered 
and spoke of the good will and wise measures which he constantly 
manifested in conversation relative to the government of New Spain. 


1« A Castilla y a Leon, 
“‘ Mundo nuebo dio Colon, ” 
Is the motto attached to the arms of this house. 


CHAPTER. & 
1674 — 1696. 


RIVERA VICEROY. — LA CERDA VICEROY.— REVOLT IN NEW MEXI- 
CO.— SUCCESS OF THE INDIANS.— COLONY DESTROYED. — 
EFFORTS OF THE SPANIARDS TO RECONQUER.—VERA CRUZ 
SACKED.—COUNT MONCLOVA VICEROY.—COUNT GALVE VICE- 
ROY. —TARRAHUMARIC REVOLT.— INDIANS PACIFIED.—TEXAS. 
—HISPANIOLA ATTACKED.—INSURRECTION— BURNING OF THE 
PALACE. — FAMINE — EARTHQUAKE. 


——— 


Fray Payo Enriquez pE Rivera, ARcHBISHOP oF Mexico, 


XXVII. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1674 — 1680. 


Tue Duke of Veraguas, as we have seen, enjoyed none of his 
viceroyal honors save those which crowned his entrance into the 
capital; and as soon as his remains were temporarily interred in 
the cathedral, Fray Payo Enriquez de Rivera assumed the reins of 
government. 

This excellent prelate had fulfilled the functions of his bishopric, 
for nine years, in Guatemala, so satisfactorily to the masses, that 
his elevation to supreme power in Mexico was hailed as a national 
blessing. He devoted himself from the first, diligently, to the 
adornment of the capital and the just and impartial administration 
of public affairs. He improved the roads and entrances into the 
city; and, by his moderation, justice and mildness, united with 
liberality and economy, raised the reputation of his government to 
such a degree of popular favor that, in the annals of New Spain, it 
is referred to as a model public administration. 

In 1677, by the orders of the queen regent, Rivera, despatched a 
colony to California; and in the following year, Charles II., who 
had attained his majority, signified his gratitude to the viceroy for 
his paternal government of New Spain, as well as for the care he 


LA CERDA VICEROY — REVOLT IN NEW MEXICO. 213 


had shown not only for the social, artistical and political improve- 
ment of the nation committed to his charge, but for the honest 
collection of the royal income, which, in those days, was a matter 
of no small moment or interest to the Spanish kings. But in 1680, 
the viceroy’s health began to fail, and Charles the Second, who 
still desired to preserve and secure the invaluable services of so 
excellent a personage to his country, nominated him bishop of 
Cuenca, and created him president of the Council of the Indies. 


Don Tomas Antonio ManriquE DE LA CERDA, 
MARQUES DE LA Lacuna, 


XXVIII. Viceroy or NEw Spain. 
1680 — 1686. 


The archbishop Rivera, when he left the viceroyal chair handed 
to his successor in 1680, on the 30th of November, the letter he had 
just received from the north, imparting the sad news of a general 
rising of the Indians in New Mexico against the Spaniards. The 
aborigines of that region, who then amounted to about twenty- 
five thousand, residing in twenty-four villages, had entered into 
combination with the wilder tribes thronging the broad plains 
of the north and the recesses of the neighboring mountains, and 
had suddenly descended, in great force, upon the unfortunate 
Spaniards scattered through the country. The secret of the con- 
Spiracy was well kept until the final moment of rupture. The 
spirit of discontent, and the bond of Indian union were fostered 
and strengthened, silently, steadily and gradually, throughout a 
territory of one hundred and twenty-five leagues in extent, without 
the revelation of the fact to any of the foreigners in the region. 
Nor did the strangers dream of impending danger until the 10th 
of August, when, at the same moment, the various villages of In- 
_dians, took arms against the Spaniards, and, slaughtering all who 
were not under the immediate protection of garrisons, even wreaked 
their vengeance upon twenty-one Franciscan monks who had la- 
bored for the improvement of their social condition as well as for 
their conversion to christianity. 

Having successfully assaulted all the outposts of this remote 
government of New Spain, the Indians next directed their arms 
against the capital, Santa Fé, which was the seat of government 


and the residence of the wealthiest and most distinguished inhabi- 
28 


214 SUCCESS OF THE INDIANS — COLONY DESTROYED. 


tants of the north. But the garrison was warned in time by a few 
natives who still remained faithful to their foreign task-masters, 
and was thus enabled to muster its forces and to put its arms in 
order, so as to receive the meditated assault. ,The Spanish soldiers 
allowed the rebellious conspirators to approach their defences, until 
they were sure of their aim, and, then, discharging their pieces 
upon the impetuous masses, covered the fields with dead and 
wounded. But the brave Indians were too excited, resolved and 

numerous to be stayed or repulsed by the feeble garrison. New 
auxiliaries took the places of the slaughtered ranks. On all sides, 

the country was dark with crowds of dusky warriors whose shouts 

and warwhoops continually rent the air. Clouds of arrows, and 

showers of stones were discharged on the heads of the beleagured 

townsmen. No man dared show himself beyond the covering of 

houses and parapets ; and thus, for ten days, the Indian siege was 

unintermitted for a single moment around the walls of Santa Fé. 

At the expiration of this period the provisions as well as the mu- 

nitions of the Spaniards were expended, and the wretched inhabi- 

tants, who could no longer endure the stench from the carcasses of 

the slain which lay in putrefying heaps around their town, resolved 

to evacuate the untenable place. Accordingly, under cover of the 

night, they contrived to elude the besiegers’ vigilance, and quitting 
the town by secret and lonely paths, they fled to Paso del Norte, 

whence they despatched messengers to the viceroy with the news 

of their misfortune. The day after this precipitate retreat, the — 
Indians, who were altogether unaware of the Spaniards’ departure, 
expected a renewal of the combat. But the town was silent. Ad- 
vancing cautiously from house to house and street to street, they 
saw that Santa Fé was, in reality deserted; and, content with having 
driven their oppressors from the country, they expended their wrath 
upon the town by destroying and burning the buildings. The 
cause of this rising was the bad conduct of the Spaniards to the 
Indians and the desire of these wilder northern tribes to regain 
their natural rights. 

In the commencement of 1681, the viceroy began to fear that this 
rebellion, which seemed so deeply rooted and so well organized, 
would spread throughout the neighboring provinces, and, accord- 
ingly, despatched various squadrons of soldiers to New Mexico, 
and ordered levies to join them as they marched to the north 
towards El Paso del Norte, which was the present refuge of the 
expelled and flying government. In this place all the requisite 
preparations for a campaign were diligently prepared, and thence 


‘EFFORTS OF THE SPANIARDS TO RECONQUER 215 


the troops departed in quest of the headstrong rebels. But all 
their pains and efforts were fruitless. The object of the Indians 
seems to have been accomplished in driving off the Spaniards and 
destroying their settlements. The wild children of the soil and of 
the forest neither desired the possession of their goods, nor waged 
war in order to enjoy the estates they had been forced to till. It 
was a simple effort to recover once more the wild liberty of 
which they had been deprived, and to overthrow the masked 
slavery to which the more ennervated races of the south submitted 
tamely, under the controling presence of ampler forces. They 
contented themselves, therefore, with destroying towns, planta- 
tions, farms, and villages, and, flying to the fastnesses of the 
mountain forests, either kept out of reach of the military bands that 
traversed the country or descended in force upon detached parties. 
The Spaniards were thus denied all opportunity to make a suc- 
cessful military demonstration against the Indians; and, after 
waiting a season in fruitless efforts to subdue the natives, they 
retired to El Paso, leaving the country still in the possession of 
their foes who would neither fight nor come to terms, although an 
unconditional pardon and a future security of rights were freely 
promised. 

The unsuccessful expedition of the previous year, induced the 
viceroy, in 1682, to adopt other means for the reduction of the 
refractory Indians to obedience. ‘That vast region was not to be 
lost, nor were the few inhabitants who still continued to reside on 
its frontiers, to be abandoned to the mercy of savages. The 
Marques de la Laguna, therefore resolved to re-colonize Santa Fé, 
and, accordingly, despatched three hundred families of Spaniards 
and mulattoes, among whom he divided the land by caballerias. 
Besides this, he augmented the garrison in all the forts and strong- 
holds scattered throughout the territory, so that agriculture and 
trade, grouped under the guns of his soldiery, might once more 
lift up their heads in that remote region in spite of Indian hostility. 
This measure was of great service in controling the natives else- 
where. The Indians in the neighboring provinces had begun to 
exhibit a strong desire to imitate the example of the New Mexican 
bands, and, in all probability, were only prevented by this strin- 
gent measure of the viceroy from freeing themselves from the 
Spanish yoke. 


The administration of the Marques de la Laguna was an unfor- 
tunate one for his peace if not for his fame. The expedition which 


216 VERA CRUZ SACKED — COUNT MONCLOVA VICEROY. 


he despatched in 1683 to California, under Don Isidro Otondo, 
and in which were Jesuits among whom was the celebrated Father 
Kino, returned from that country three years afterwards after a 
fruitless voyage and exploration of the coasts. Nor was the 
eastern coast of New Spain more grateful for the cares of the 
viceroy. Vera Cruz, the chief port of the realm, was, at this time, 
warmly besieged and finally sacked by the English pirate Nicholas 
Agramont, who was drawn thither by a mulatto, Lorencellio, 
after taking refuge in Jamaica for a crime that he had committed 
in New Spain. On the 17th of May, Vera Cruz, surrendered to 
the robbers, who possessed themselves of property to the amount 
of seven millions of dollars, which was awaiting the arrival in the 
harbor of the fleet that was to carry it to Spain. The chief 
portion of the inhabitants took sanctuary in the churches, where 
they remained pent up for a length of time; but the pirates 
contrived to seize a large number of clergymen, monks and women, 
whom they forced to bear the spoils of the city to their vessels, and 
afterwards treated with the greatest inhumanity. 

The coasts of Mexico were, at this period, sorely harassed with 
the piratical vessels of France and England. The wealth of the 
New World, inadequately protected by Spanish cruisers, in its 
transit to Europe, was a tempting prize to the bold nautical adven- 
turers of the north of Europe; and the advantages of the Spanish 
colonies were thus reaped by nations who were freed from the 
expenses of colonial possessions. ‘There are perhaps still many 
families in these countries whose fortunes were founded upon the 
robbery of Castilian galeons. 


Don MeEucHor Portrocarrero Laso DE LA VEGA, 
Count pE LA Monctova. 
XXIX. Vicrroy or New Spain. 
1686 — 1688. 


The Conde de Monclova, surnamed “ Brazo de Plata’ from the 
fact that he supplied with a silver arm the member he had lost in 
battle, arrived in Mexico on the 30th of November, 1686, and 
immediately devoted himself to the improvement of the capital, the 
completion of the canal which was to free the city from inundations, 
and the protection of the northern provinces and the coasts of the 
gulf against the menaced settlements of the French. He despatch- 
ed several Spanish men of war and launches to scour the harbors 


COUNT GALVE VICEROY — TARRAHUMARIC REVOLT. DA 


and inlets of the eastern shores, as far as Florida, in order to 
dislodge the intruders; and, having obtained control over the 
Indians of Coahuila he established a strong garrison, and founded 
a colonial settlement, called the town of Monclova, with a hundred 
and fifty families, in which there were two hundred and seventy 
men capable of bearing arms against the French whom he expect- 
ed to encounter in that quarter. 

The Conde de Monclova contemplated various plans for the con- 
solidation and advancement of New Spain, but before two years 
had expired he was relieved from the government and transferred 
to the viceroyaliy of Peru. 


Don Gaspar DE SanpovaL Sitva ¥ MeEnpoza, 


Count DE GALVE. 
XXX. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1688. 


The Conde de Galve entered upon his government on the 17th 
of September, 1688; and even before the departure of his predeces- 
sor for Peru, he learned that the fears of that functionary had been 
realized by the discovery of attempts by the French to found settle- 
ments in New Spain. The governor of Coahuila in the course of 
his explorations in the wilderness found a fort which had been 
commenced, and the remains of a large number of dead French- 
men, who had no doubt been engaged in the erection of the strong- 
hold when they fell under the blows and arrows of the savages. 

Besides this intrusion in the north, from which the Spaniards 
were, nevertheless, somewhat protected by the Indians who hated 
the French quite as much as they did the subjects of Spain, — the 
viceroy heard, moreover, that the Tarrahumare and Tepehuane 
tribes had united with other wild bands of the north-west, and 
were in open rebellion. Forces were immediately despatched 
against the insurgents, but they fared no better than the Spanish 
troops had done in previous years in New Mexico. The love of 
liberty, or the desire of entire freedom from labor, was in this case, 
as in the former, the sole cause of the insurrection. When the 
blow was struck, the Indians fled to their fastnesses, and when the 
regular soldiery arrived on the field to fight them according to the 
regular laws of war, the children of the forest were, as usual, no 
where to be found! Nor is it likely that the rebellion would 
have been easily suppressed, or improbable that those provinces 


215 INDIANS PACIFIED — TEXAS — HISPANIOLA ATTACKED. 


would have been lost, had not the Jesuits, who enjoyed considera- 
ble influence over the insurgent tribes, devoted themselves, forth- 
with, to calming the excited bands. Among the foremost of these 
clerical benefactors of Spain was the noble Milanese Jesuit, Salva- 
tierra, whose authority over the Indians was perhaps paramount to 
all others, and whose successful zeal was acknowledged by a 
grateful letter from the viceroy. This worthy priest had been one 
of the ablest missionaries among these warlike tribes. He won 
their love and confidence whilst endeavoring to diffuse christianity 
among them, and the power he obtained through his humanity 
and unvarying goodness, was now the means of once more subject- 
ing the revolted Indians to the Spaniards. The cross achieved a 
victory which they refused to the sword. 

In 1690, another effort was made to populate California, in vir- 
tue of new orders received from Charles; and, whilst the prepara- 
tions were making to carry the royal will into effect, the viceroy 
commanded the governor of Coahuila to place a garrison at San 
Bernardo, where the French attempted to build their fort. Orders 
were also sent about the same time by Galve to extend the Spanish 
power northward, and, in 1691, the province of Asinais, or Texas, 
as it was called by the Spaniards, was settled by some emigrants, 
and visited by fourteen Franciscan monks, who were anxious to 
devote themselves to the conversion of the Indians. A garrison 
and a mission were established, at that time, in Texas ; but in con- 
sequence, not only of an extraordinary drought which occurred two 
or three years after, destroying the crops and the cattle, but also 
of a sudden rebellion among the natives against the Spaniards who 
desired to subject them to the same ignoble toils that were 
patiently endured by the southern tribes, nearly all the posts and 
missions were immediately abandoned. 

The year 1690 was signalized in the annals of New Spain by an 
attack and successful onslaught made by the orders of the viceroy 
with Creole troops upon the island of Hispaniola, which was occu- 
pied by the French. Six ships of the line and a frigate, with two 
thousand seven hundred soldiers, sailed from the port of Vera 
Cruz, upon this warlike mission; and after fighting a decisive bat- 
tle and destroying the settlements upon parts of the island, but 
without attacking the more thickly peopled and better defended 
districts of the west, they returned to New Spain with a multitude 
of prisoners and some booty. 

But the rejoicings to which these victories gave rise were of 
short duration. The early frosts of 1691 had injured the crops, 


INSURRECTION —— BURNING OF THE PALACE. 219 


and the country was menaced with famine. On the 9th of June, 
in this year, the rain fell in torrents, and, accompanied as it was 
by hail, destroyed the grain that was cultivated not only around 
the capital, but also in many of the best agricultural districts. The 
roads became impassable, and many parts of the city of Mexico 
were inundated by floods from the lake, which continued to lie in 
the low level streets until the end of the year. Every effort was 
made by the authorities to supply the people with corn, — the staff 
of life among the lower classes, — and commissaries were even 
despatched to the provinces to purchase grain which might be 
stored and sold to the masses at reasonable prices. But the sus- 
picious multitude did not justly regard this provident and humane 
act. ‘They imagined that the viceroy and his friends designed to 
profit by the scarcity of food, and to enrich themselves by the 
misery of the country. Accordingly, loud murmurs of discontent 
‘arose among the lower classes in the capital, and on the 8th of 
June, 1692, the excited mob rushed suddenly to the palace of the 
viceroy, and setting fire not only to it but to the Casa de Cabildo 
and the adjacent buildings, destroyed that splendid edifice together 
with most of the archives, records and historical documents which 
had been preserved since the settlement of the country. A dili- 
gent search was made for the authors of this atrocious calamity, 
and eight persons were tried, convicted and executed for the 
ermme. ‘The wretched incendiaries were found among the dregs 
of the people. Many of their accomplices were also found guilty 
and punished with stripes ; and the viceroy took measures to drive 
the hordes of skulking Indians who had been chiefly active in the 
mob, from their haunts in the city, as well as to deprive them of 
the intoxicating drinks, and especially their favorite pulque, in 
which they were habituated to indulge. The crop of 1693, in 
some degree, repaired the losses of previous years, and in the en- 
suing calm the Conde de Galve commenced the rebuilding of 
the viceroyal palace. ‘The property destroyed in the conflagration 
in June, 1692, amounted in value to at least three millions of 


dollars. 


In this year, the viceroy, who was anxious for the protection of 
the northern shores of the gulf, and desirous to guard the territory 
of Fiorida, from the invasion or settlement of the northern nations 
of Europe, fitted out an expedition of expert engineers to Pensa- 
cola, who designed and laid the foundations of the fortifications of 
this important port. Three years afterwards, before the termina- 


220 FAMINE — EARTHQUAKE. 


tion of his command in New Spain, Galvé had the satisfaction to 
despatch from Vera Cruz the colony and garrison which were to 
occupy and defend this stronghold. 

In 1694, the capital and the adjacent province were once more 
afflicted with scarcity, and to this was added the scourge of an 
epidemic that carried thousands to the grave. In the following 
year a dreadful earthquake shook the city of Mexico, on the night 
of the 24th of August, and at seven o’clock of the following morn- 
ing. But amid all these afflictions, which were regarded by multi- 
tudes as specially sent by the hand of God to punish the people for 
their sins, the authorities managed to preserve order throughout 
the country, and in 1695, sent large reinforcements for the expedi- 
tion which the English and Spaniards united in fitting out against 
the French who still maintained their hold on the island of His- 
paniola. This adventure was perfectly successful. The combined 
forces assaulted the Gauls with extraordinary energy, and bore off 
eighty-one cannons as trophies of their victorious descent. The 
checquered administration of the Conde de Galve was thus satis- 
factorily terminated, and he returned to Spain after eight years of 
government, renowned for the equity and prudence of his adminis- 
tration during a period of unusual peril. 


CHAPTER XI. 
1696 — 1734. 


MONTANEZ VICEROY.— SPIRITUAL CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. — 
VALLADARES VICEROY. —= FAIR AT ACAPULCO. ——SPANISH MON- 
ARCHY — AUSTRIA — BOURBON. — MONTANEZ VICEROY. — JE- 
SUITS IN CALIFORNIA. —LA CUEVA VICEROY. — DUKE DE LI- 
NARES VICEROY.— BRITISH SLAVERY TREATY.— COLONIZATION. 
NUEVO LEON. — TEXAS.— OPERATIONS IN TEXAS — ALARCON — 
AGUAYO.— CASA-FUERTE’S VIRTUOUS ADMINISTRATION — LOUIS 
I.— ORIENTAL TRADE — SPANISH JEALOUSY. — THE KING’S 
OPINION OF CASA-FUERTE — HIS ACTS. 


Don Juan DE Orteca MontTAaNEz, BisHop or Micnwoacan, 


XXXI. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
16962— 1702, 


ScarcEeLy had Galve departed, and the new episcopal viceroy 
Montanez assumed the reins of government, on the 27th of 
February, 1696, when news reached Mexico that a French squad- 
ron was laying in wait near Havana, to seize the galeons which 
were to leave Vera Cruz in the spring for Spain. The fleet was 
accordingly ordered to delay its departure until the summer, whilst 
masses were said and prayers addressed to the miraculous image 
of the Virgin of Remedios to protect the vessels and their treasure 
from disaster. The failure of the fleet to sail at the appointed day 
Seems to have caused the French squadron to depart for Europe, 
after waiting a considerable time to effect their piratical enterprise ; 
and, in the end, all the galeons, save one, reached the harbor of 
Cadiz, where the duties alone on their precious freights amounted 
to four hundred and twelve thousand dollars ! 

At this period the settlement of the Californias, which was al- 
ways a favorite project among the Mexicans, began again to be 
agitated. The coasts had been constantly visited by adventurers 
engaged in the pearl fishery; but these persons, whose manners 


299 VALLADARES VICEROY — FAIR AT ACAPULCO, 


were not conciliatory, and whose purposes were altogether selfish, 
did not contribute to strengthen the ties between the Spaniards and 
the natives. Indeed, the Indians continually complained of the 
fishermen’s ill usage, and were unwilling to enter either into trade 
or friendship with so wild a class of unsettled visiters. The 
colonial efforts, previously made, had failed in consequence of the 
scarcity of supplies, nor could sufficient forces be spared to com- 
pel the submission of the large and savage tribes that dwelt in 
those remote regions. Accordingly, when the worthy Father Sal- 
vatierra, moved by the descriptions of Father Kino, prayed the 
Audiencia to intrust the reduction of the Californias to the care of 
the Jesuits, who would undertake it without supplies from the 
royal treasury, that body and the episcopal viceroy, consented to 
the proposed spiritual conquest, and imposed on the holy father no 
other conditions except that the effort should be made without cost 
to Spain, and that the territory subdued should be taken possession — 
of in the name of Charles II. Besides this concession to the 
Jesuits, the viceroy and Audiencia granted to Salvatierra and Kino 
the right to levy troops and name commanders for their protection 
in the wilderness. A few days after the conclusion of this contract 
with the zealous missionaries, the government of Montanez was 
terminated by the arrival of his successor, the Conde de Montezuma. 


Don Jost SARMIENTO VALLADARES, 
Count pE Montezuma y Tua 


XXXII. Viceroy or Mexico. 
1696 — 1702. 


The Conde de Montezuma arrived in Mexico on the 18th of 
December, 1696. Early in the ensuing January the annual galeon 
from the Philipine islands reached the port of Acapulco, and this 
year the advent of the vessel, laden with oriental products seems to 
have been the motive for the assemblage of people not only from 
all parts of Mexico, but even from Peru, at a fair, at which nearly 
two millions of dollars were spent by inhabitants of the latter vice- 
royalty in merchandise from China. Hardly had the festivities of 
this universal concourse ended when a violent earthquake shook 
the soil of New Spain, and extended from the west coast to the’ 
interior beyond the capital, in which the inhabitants were suffering 
from scarcity, and beginning already to exhibit symptoms of dis- 
content, as they had done five years before, against the supreme 


SPANISH MONARCHY — AUSTRIA — BOURBON. 993 


authorities, who they always accused of criminally withholding 
grain or maintaining its exorbitant price whenever the seasons were 
inauspicious. But the Conde de Montezuma was on his guard, 
and immediately took means to control the Indians and lower 
classes who inhabited the suburbs of the capital. In the mean- 
while he caused large quantities of corn to be sent to Mexico from 
the provinces, and, as long as the scarcity continued and until it 
was ascertained that the new crop would be abundant, he ordered 
grain to be served out carefully to those who were really in want 
or unable to supply themselves at the prices of the day. 


In 1698 the joyful news of the peace concluded in the preceding 
year between France, Spain, Holland and England, reached 
Mexico, and gave rise to unusual rejoicings among the people. 
Commerce, which had suffered greatly from the war, recovered its 
wonted activity. The two following years passed over New 
Spain uneventfully; but the beginning of the eighteenth century 
was signalized by a matter which not only affected the politics of 
Europe, but might have interfered essentially with the loyalty and 
prosperity of the New World. 


In 1701, the monarchy of Spain passed from the house of 
Austria to that of Bourbon. ‘The history of this transition of the 
crown, and of the conflicts to which it gave rise not only in Spain 
but throughout Europe, is well known at the present day. Yet 
America does not appear to have been shaken in its fidelity, amid 
all the convulsions of the parent state. Patient, submissive and 
obedient to the authorities sent them from across the sea, the people 
of Mexico were as willing to receive a sovereign of a new race, as 
to hail the advent in their capital of a new viceroy. Accordingly 
the inhabitants immediately manifested their fealty to the succes- 
sor named by Charles II., a fact which afforded no small degree 
of consolation to Philip V. during all the vicissitudes of his fortune. 
It is even related that this monarch thought at one period of taking 
refuge among his American subjects, and thus relieving himself of 
the quarrels and conflicts by which he was surrounded and assailed 
in Europe. | 


The public mourning and funeral obsequies for the late sovereign 
were celebrated in Mexico with great pomp according to a precise 


1Tn 1697 there was an eruption of the volcano of Popocatepetl, on the 29th cf 
October. 


224 MONTANEZ VICEROY — JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 


ritual which was sent from the Spanish court, and, whilst the 
people were thinking of the festivities which were to signalize 
Philip’s accession to the throne, the Conde de Montezuma returned — 
to Spain after four years of uneventful rule. 


Don Juan pE Ortega Montanez, 
ArcuBisHop oF Mexico, 
His Seconp VICEROYALTY. 


XXXITI. Viceroy or Mexico. a 
, 1701 —_ 1702; 


The brief period during which the archiepiscopal viceroy exer- 
cised his functions in Mexico for the second time, is chiefly, and 
perhaps, only, memorable, for the additional efforts made by the 
worthy Jesuits in California to subdue and settle that distant 
province. The colonists and clergymen “who had already gone 
thither complained incessantly of their sufferings in consequence of 
the sterility of the coasts. But Salvatierra remained firm in his 
resolution to spread the power of Spain and of his church among 
the wild tribes at the feet of the western sierra along the Pacific 
coast. His labors and those of his diligent coadjutors were slow 
but incessant. ‘Trusting confidently in Providence, they maintained 
their post at the Presidio of Loreto, and gathered around them, by 
their persuasive eloquence and gentle demeanor, large numbers of 
natives, until the success of their teachings threatened them with 
starvation in consequence of the abundance of their converts, all of 
whom relied upon the fathers for maintenance as soon as they 
abandoned their savage life. Yet there was no other means of 
attaching the Indians to the Spanish government. ‘The authorities 
in Mexico had refused and continued obstinate in their denial of 
men or money to conquer or hold the country; so that, after 
various efforts to obtain the aid of the government, the pious 
mendicants resolved to return again to their remote missions with 
no other reliance than honest zeal and the support of God. At 
this juncture Philip V., and a number of influential people in the 
capital, volunteered to aid the cause of christianity and Spain, by 
supplies which would ensure the final success of the Jesuits. 


LA CUEVA VICEROY. 225 


Don Francisco FERNANDEZ DE LA CuEvA, 
DuqQuE DE ALBURQUERQUE. 
XXXIV. Viceroy or New Span. 
1702 — 1709. 


As soon as the Duke of Alburquerque assumed the government 
of Mexico, he perceived that more than ordinary care was neces- 
sary to consolidate a loyal alliance between the throne and _ its 
American possessions, during the dangerous period in which por- 
tions of Spain, in the old world, were armed and aroused against 
the lawful authorities of the land. Accordingly the new viceroy 
immediately strengthened the military arm of the colony, and ex- 
tended the government of provinces and the custody of his strong- 
holds and fastnesses to Spaniards upon whose fidelity he could im- 
plicitly rely. Without these precautions, he, perhaps, justly feared 
that notwithstanding the loyalty manifested in New Spain upon the 
accession of Philip, the insubordination of certain parts of the 
Spanish monarchy, at home, might serve as a bad example to the 
American colonists, and, finally, result in a civil war that would 
drench the land with blood. Besides this, the foreign fleets and 
pirates were again beginning to swarm along the coasts, lying in 
wait for the treasure which was annually despatched to Spain; but 
to meet and control these adventurers, the careful duke increased 
the squadron of Barlovento, who was instructed to watch the coast 
incessantly, and to lose no opportunity to make prizes of the ene- 
my’s vessels. 

Peace was thus preserved in New Spain both on land and water, 
whilst the Jesuits of California still continued their efforts, unaided 
by the government, whose resources were drained for the wars of 
the old world. Thus, after eight years of a strong but pacific reign, 
during which he saved New Spain from imitating the disgraceful 
dissensions of the parent state, the Duke of Alburquerque resigned 
his government into the hands of the Duke of Linares. 


29 


~ 


226 DUKE DE LINARES VICEROY— BRITISH SLAVERY TREATY. 


Don Fernanpo ALENcASTRE NoroNa y¥ SILVA, 
Duxe bE LriyargEs, 
XXXV. VicEroy oF New Spain. 
1710 — 1716. 


The Duke of Linares entered Mexico in 1710. The first years 
of his administration were uneventful, nor was his whole govern- 
ment distinguished, in fact, by any matter which will make it par- 
ticularly memorable in the history of New Spain. 

In 1512, Philip V. found himself master of nearly the whole 
of Spain, and being naturally anxious to end the war with honor, 
his emmissaries improved every opportunity to withdraw members 
of the combined powers from a contest which threatened to be in- 
terminable. Accordingly, he approached the English with the 
temptations of trade, and through his ambassadors who were 
assisting at the congress of Utrecht, he proposed that the British 
Queen Anne should withdraw from the contest, if he granted her 
subjects the right to establish trading houses in his ports on the 
main and in the islands, for the purpose of supplying the colonies 
with African slaves. A similar contract had been made ten years 
before with the French, and was about to expire on the Ist of May. 

Anne, who was wearied of the war and was glad to escape from 
its expense and danger, was not loath to accept the proffered terms; 
and the treaty, known by the name of El siento, which was put 
in force in Vera Cruz and other Spanish ports, resulted most bene- 
ficially to the English. They filled the markets with negroes, and, 
at the same time, continued to reap profit from the goods they 
smuggled into the colonies, notwithstanding the treaty forbade the 
introduction of British merchandise to the detriment of Spanish 
manufactures. This combined inhumane and illicit trade contin- 
ued for a considerable time, until the authorities were obliged to 
‘menace the officers of customs with death if they connived any 
longer at the secret and scandalous introduction of British wares. 

In 1714, a brief famine and severe epidemic again ravaged the 
colony. In this year, too, the Indians of Texas once more mani- 
fested a desire to submit themselves to Spain and to embrace the 
christian faith. Orders were, therefore, given to garrison that 
northern province, and the Franciscan monks were again com- 


Nore. — The year 1711, is remarkable in the annals of the valley of Mexico for 
a snow storm, which is only known to have occurred again on the Feast of the Puri- 
fication of the Virgin in 1767. In August of 1711, there was an awful earthquake, 
which shattered the city and destroyed many of its strongest houses. 


COLONIZATION — NUEVO LEON — TEXAS. Dae | 


manded to return to their missions among the Ansinais. At the 
same time, a new colony was founded in Nuevo Leon, forty 
leagues south-east from Monterey, which, in honor of the viceroy 
received the name of San Felipe de Linares. At the close of this 
year, 1715, the garrisons of Texas were already completed, and 
the Franciscan friars busy in their mission of inducing the sav- 
ages to abandon their nomadic habits for the quieter life of villa- 
gers. ‘This was always the most successful effort of the Spaniards 
in controling the restless wanderers and hunters of the wilder- 
ness. It was the first step in the modified civilization that usually 
ended in a mere knowledge of the formula of prayers which was 
called christianity, and in the more substantial labor of the Indians 
which was in reality nothing but slavery. 

The year 1716 was the last of the reign of the Duke of Linares, 
who in the month of August resigned his post to the Duke of Arion. 


Don BaLttTazar DE ZuNicA Guzman, Sotomayor y MENpoza, 
DuKe pe Arion AND Marques DE VALERO. 
XXXVI. Viceroy or NEw Spain 
1716 — 1722. 


Scarcely had the Duke de Arion taken charge of the viceroyal 
government, when he received an express from Texas, despatched 
by Domingo Ramon, who was captain of the Spaniards in the 
province, informing the authorities of the famine which prevailed 
throughout his command, and demanding supplies, without which, 
he would be obliged to abandon his post and take refuge with his 
soldiers in Coahuila. The new viceroy saw at once the impor- 
tance of preserving this province as an outpost and frontier against 
the French who had already begun their settlements in Louisiana, 
and accordingly he commanded the governor of Coahuila to send 
provisions and troops to Texas, together with mechanics who 
should teach the useful arts to the Indians. 

While these occurrences took place in the north of Mexico, war 
was once more declared between Spain and France without any 
apparent motive save the hatred which the Duke of Orleans, 
the regent during the minority of Louis XV., entertained for the 
Cardinal Alberoni who was prime minister of Spain and had in- 
trigued to dispossess him of his regency. The news of this war 
reached New Spain, and on the 19th of May, 1719, the French 
attacked Pensacola and received the capitulation of the governor, 


228 OPERATIONS IN TEXAS — ALARCON — AGUAYO. 


who was unprepared, either with men or provisions to resist the 
invaders. In the following month the garrison and missionaries 
of Texas returned hastily to Coahuila, and apprised the viceroy of 
their flight for safety. But that functionary saw at once the ne- 
cessity of strengthening the frontier. Levies were, therefore, im- 
mediately made. Munitions were despatched to the north. And 
five hundred men, divided into eight companies, marched forthwith 
to re-establish the garrisons and missions under the command of 
the Marques San Miguel de Aguayo, the new governor of Florida 
and ‘Texas. ! 

Notwithstanding the hostilities between France and Spain, and 
the eager watchfulness of the fleets and privateers of the former 
nations, the galeons of New Spain, reached Cadiz in 1721, with a 
freight of eleven millions of dollars!) The years 1722 and 1723 
were signalized by some outbreaks among the Indians which were 
successfully quelled by the colonial troops; and, in October, the 
Duke of Arion, who had controlled New Spain for six years, was 
succeeded by the Marques of Casa-Fuerte, a general of artillery. 
He entered Mexico amid the applauses of the people not only be- 
cause he was a creole or native of America, but for the love that 
was borne him by Philip the Fifth, who well knew the services for 
which the crown was indebted to so brave a warrior. 


1 It may not be uninteresting or unprofitable to state in this place some of the 
efforts at positive settlement in Texas which were made by the Spaniards during 
the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Alarcon, the governor, early in 1718, 
crossed the Medina, with a large number of soldiers, settlers and mechanics, and 
founded the town of Bejar, with the fortress of San Antonio, and the mission of San 
Antonio Valero. Thence he pushed on to the country of the Cenis Indians, where, 
having strengthened the missionary force, he crossed the river Adayes, which he 
called the Rio de San Francisco de Sabinas, or the Sabine, and began the founda- 
tion of a fortress, within a short distance of the French fort, at Natchitoches, named 
by him the Presido de San Miguel Arcangel de Linares de Adayes. These establish- 
ments were reinforced during the next year, and another stronghold was erected on 
the Oreoquisas, probably the San Jacinto, emptying into Galveston bay, west of 
the mouth of the Trinity. 

The French, who were not unobseryant of these Spanish acts of occupation in a 
country they claimed by virtue of La SaHe’s discovery and possession in 1684, im- 
mediately began to establish counter-settlements, on the Mississippi, and in the 
valley of the Red river. When Alarcon wags removed from the government of 
Texas he was succeeded by the Marques de Aguayo, who made expeditions through 
the country in 1721 and 1722, during which he considerably increased the Spanish 
establishments, and, after this period, no attempt was ever made by the French to 
occupy any spot south-west of Natchitoches. See History of Florida, Louisiana 
and Texas, by Robert Greenhow. Mii . 


CASA-FUERTE’S VIRTUOUS ADMINISTRATION — LOUIS I. 229 


Don Juan pE AcuNa, Marques pe Casa-FuERrtTE, 


XXXVII. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
122 ia. 


In recording these brief memorials of the viceroys of Mexico it 
has been our purpose rather to mention the principal public events 
that signalized their reigns, and developed or protected the na- 
tion committed to their charge, than to trace the intrigues or ex- 
hibit the misconduct of those functionaries and their courtiers. We 
have abstained, therefore, from noticing many of the corrupt prac- 
tices which crept into dichadiimuaerstion of Mexico, leaving such 
matters to be studied in the summary view we have presented 
of the colonial government of Spain. But, in sketching the vice- 
royalty of the Marques de Casa-Fuerte, we cannot justly avoid ob- 
serving the marked and moral change he wrought in the govern- — 
ment of the country, and the diligence with which this brave and 
trusty soldier labored to purify the corrupt court of New Spain. 
Other viceroys had endeavored zealously to aid the progress of the 
colony. They had planted towns, villages, and garrisons through- 
out the interior. They had sought to develope the mining districts 
and to foster agricultural interests. But almost all of them were 
more or less tainted with avarice, and willingly fell into the habits 
of the age, which countenanced the traffic in office, or permitted 
the reception of liberal ‘‘ gratifications ’’ whenever an advantage 
was to be derived by an individual from his transactions with the 
government. : 

In the time of Casa-Fuerte, there was no path to the alae but 
that which was open to all. Merit was the test of employment and 
reward. He forbade the members of his family to receive gifts 
or to become intercessors for office seekers; and, in all branches 
of public affairs, he introduced wholesome reforms which were 
carefully maintained during the whole of his long and virtuous 
administration. | 

In 1724, Philip V. suddenly and unexpectedly for his American 
subjects, resolved to abdicate the crown of Spain and raise his son 
Louis I. to the throne. Scarcely had the news reached Mexico, 
and while the inhabitants were about to celebrate the accession of 
the prince, when they learned that he was already dead, and that 
his father, fearing to seat the minor Ferdinand in the place of his 
lost son, had again resumed the sceptre. The Marques de Casa 
Fuerte, drstently proclaimed the fact to the people, whose loyalty 

30 


930 ORIENTAL TRADE — SPANISH JEALOUSY. 


to the old sovereign continued unabated ; and during the unusually 
long and successful government of this viceroy, the greatest cor- 
diality and confidence was maintained between himself and his 
royal master. 

Casa-Fuerte despatched a colony of emigrants from the Canary 
Isles to Texas, and establishing a town for their occupation, he 
modestly refused the proffered honor of bestowing upon it his name, 
but caused it to be called San Fernando, in honor of the heir of 
the Spanish crown. Nor did he neglect commerce whilst he 
attended to a discreet colonization in the north which might encoun- 
ter and stay the southern progress of the English and the French. 
In 1731, the oriental trade of New Spain had become exceedingly 
important. The galeons that regularly passed across the Pacific, 
from the East Indies, and arrived every year in America about 
Christmas, had enjoyed almost a monopoly of the Indian trade in ~ 
consequence of the wars which continually existed during that 
century and filled the northern and southern Atlantic with pirates 
and vessels of war. The Pacific, however, was comparatively free 
from these dangers, and the galeons were allowed to go and come 
with but little interruption. The American creoles, in reality, 
preferred the manufactures of China to those of Europe; for the 
fabrics of silk and cotton, especially, which were sent to Mexico 
from Asia, had been sold at half the price demanded for similar 
articles produced in Spain. The galeon of 1731, which discharged 
its cargo in Acapulco, bore a freight of unusual value, whence we 
may estimate the Mexican commerce of that age. The duties 
collected upon this oriental merchandise exceeded one hundred 
and seventy thousand dollars, exhibiting an extraordinary increase 
of eastern trade with Mexico, compared with thirty-five years 
before, when the impost collected on similar commerce in 1697, 
amounted to but eighty thousand dollars. The anxiety to preserve 
the mercantile importance of Cadiz and to prevent the ruin of the 
old world’s commerce, interposed many difficulties im the trade 
between the East Indies and New Spain; but the influence of 
Spanish houses in Manilla still secured the annual galeon, and the 
thrifty merchants stowed the vessels with nearly double the freight 
that was carried by similar ships on ordinary voyages. Acapulco 
thus became the emporium of an important trade, and its streets 
were crowded with merchants and strangers from all parts of 
Mexico in spite of the dangerous diseases with which they were 
almost sure to be attacked whilst visiting the western coast. 


THE KING’S OPINION OF CASA-FUERTE—HIS ACTS. 23] 


The year 17734 was a sad one for New Spain. The Marques de 
Casa-Fuerte, who governed the country for twelve years most 
successfully, and had served the crown for fifty-nine, departed this 
life, at the age of seventy-seven. He was a native of Lima, and 
like a true creole seems to have had the good of America con- 
stantly at heart. Philip V. fully appreciated his meritorious ser- 
vices, and, had the viceroy lived, would doubtless have continued 
him longer in the government of Mexico. The counsellors of the 
king often hinted to their sovereign that it was time to remove the 
Mexican viceroy ; but the only reply they received from Philip was 
“ Tong live Casa-Fuerte!”’ The courtiers answered that they 
hoped he might, indeed, live long, but, that oppressed with years 
and toils, he was no longer able to endure the burdens of so 
arduous a government. ‘As long as Casa-Fuerte lives,”’ answer- 
ed the king, ‘“‘his talents and virtues, will give him all the vigor 
required for a good minister. ”’ 

Impartial posterity has confirmed the sensibility and judgment 
of the king. During the reign of Casa-Fuerte the capital of New 
Spain was adorned with many of its most sumptuous and elegant 
edifices. The royal mint and custom house were built under his 
orders. All the garrisons throughout the viceroyalty were visited, 
examined, and reported. He was liberal with alms for the poor, 
and even left a sum to be distributed twice a year for food among 
the prisoners. He endowed an asylum for orphans; expended a 
large part of his fortune in charitable works, and is still known in 
the traditionary history of the country as the ‘ Great Governor of 
New Spain.”? His cherished remains were interred with great 
pomp, and are still preserved in the church of the Franciscans of 
San Cosmé and Damian. 


CHAPTER XIL 


1734 — 1760. 


VIZARRON AND EGUIARRETA VICEROY —EVENTLESS GOVERNMENT. 
— SALAZAR VICEROY — COLONIAL FEARS.—FUEN-CLARA VICE- 
ROY — GALEON LOST. — MEXICO UNDER REVILLA-GIGEDO I.— 
FERDINAND VI.—INDIANS—TAXES — COLONIES IN THE NORTH. 
— FAMINE — MINES AT BOLANOS — HORCASITAS. — CHARAC- 
TER OF REVILLA-GIGEDO. — VILLALON VICEROY. — CHARLES 
III. — CAGIGAL VICEROY. 


Don Juan Antonio DE Vi1zARRON y EGUIARRETA, 
ARcHBISHOP OF Mexico. 
XXXVIIL Viceroy oF New Spain. 
1734 — 1740. 


Tuis viceroy who governed New Spain from the year 1734 to 
1740, passed an uneventful reign, so far as the internal peace and 
order of the colony were concerned. War was declared, during 
this period, between France and Spain, but Mexico escaped from 
all its desolating consequences, and nothing appears to have dis- 
turbed the quiet of colonial life but a severe epidemic, which is 
said to have resembled the yellow fever, and carried off many thou-. 
sands of the inhabitants, especially in the north-eastern section 
of the territory. The viceroy was naturally solicitous to follow the 
example of his predecessors, in preventing the encroachments of 
the French on the northern indefinite boundaries of New Spain, 
and took measures to support the feeble garrisons and colonies 
which were the only representatives of Spanish rights and power 
in that remote quarter. 


2 a, 
7 


SALAZAR VICEROY — COLONIAL FEABS. DBA? 


Don Prepro Castro Fieveroa SALAZAR, 
DuKE DE LA Conquista AND Marques DE Garcta-REAL, 
XXXIX. Viczroy or New Spain. 
1740 — 1741. 

On the 17th of August the new viceroy reached the capital, and 
learned from the governor of New Mexico that the French had 
actually visited that region of the colonial possessions, yet, find- 
ing the soil and country unsuited to their purposes, had returned 
again to their own villages and settlements. At the same time the 
English, under the command of Oglethrope, bombarded the town 
and fort of San Agustin in Florida, but the brave defence made by 
the Spaniards, obliged them to raise the siege and depart. 

In 1741 the sky of New Spain was obscured by the approach- 
ing clouds of war, for Admiral Vernon, who had inflicted great 
damages upon the commerce of the Indies, captured Porto Bello, 
and occupied the forts of Cartagena. New Spain, was thus in con- 
stant dread of the arrival of a formidable enemy upon her own 
coasts ; and the Duke de la Conquista, anxious for the fate of Vera 
Cruz, hastily levied an adequate force for the protection of the shore 
along the gulf, and resolved to visit 1t personally in order to hasten 
the works which were requisite to resist the English. He de- 
parted for the eastern districts of New Spain upon the warlike mis- 
sion, but, in the midst of his labors, was suddenly seized by a 
severe illness which obliged him to return to the capital, where he 
died on the 22d of August. His body was interred with great 
pomp, amid the lamentations of the Mexicans, for in the brief 
period of his government he had manifested talents of the highest 
order, and exhibited the deepest interest in the welfare and progress 
of the country committed to his charge. His noble title of ‘“‘Duke 
of Conquest,’? was bravely won on the battle field of Bitonto; 
and although it is said that Philip slighted him during the year of 
his viceroyalty, yet it is certain that he was repaid by the admira- 
tion of the Mexican people for the lost favor of his king. Upon 
his death the Audiencia took charge of the government, and con- 
tinued in power until the following November, without any serious 
disturbance from the enemy. Anson, with his vessels, was in the 
Pacific, and waited anxiously in the neighborhood of Acapulco to 
make a prize of the galeon which was to sail for the East Indies, 
laden with a rich cargo of silver to purchase oriental fabrics. 
But the inhabitants of Acapulco and the Audiencia were on their 
guard, and the vessel and treasure of New Spain escaped the grasp 
of the English adventurer. 


#, 


“= 


234 FUEN-CLARA VICEROY—GALEON LOST. 


Don Pepro Cresrian y AGustin, Count DE Furn-Cuara. 
XL. Viceroy oF New SPaIn. 


1742 — 1746. 


The Count de Fuen-Clara assumed the viceroyal baton on the 
3d of November, 1742. His term of four years was passed with- 
out any events of remarkable importance for New Spain save the - 
capture, by Anson, of one of the East Indian galeons with a freight — 
of one million three hundred and thirteen thousand dollars in - 
coined silver, and four thousand four hundred and seventy marks — 
of the same precious metal, besides a quantity of the most valua- — 
ble products of Mexico. This period of the viceroyalty must ne- — 
cessarily be uninteresting and eventless. The wars of the old — 
world were confined to the continent and to the sea. Mexico, 
locked up amid her mountains, was not easily assailed by enemies — 
who could spare no large armies from the contests at home for enter- — 
prises in so distant a country. Besides, it was easier to grasp the - 
harvest on the ocean that had been gathered on the land. England 
contented herself, therefore, with harassing and pilfering the com- 
merce of Castile, while Mexico devoted all her energies to the de- 
velopment of her internal resources of mineral and agricultural 
wealth. Emigrants poured into the country. The waste lands 
were filling up. North, south, east and west, the country was oc- 
cupied by industrious settlers and zealous curates, who were en- 
gaged in the cultivation of the soil and the spiritual subjection of 
the Indians. The spirit as well as the dangers of the conquest 
were past, and Mexico, assumed, in the history of the age, the 
position of a quiet, growing nation, equally distant from the roman- 
tic or adventurous era of early settlement when danger and difh- 
culty surrounded the Spaniards, and from the lethean stagnation 
into which she fell in future years under Spanish misrule. 


Don Juan Francisco Guemes y Horcasiras, 
Count DE Revitita-GicGEDO — THE FIRST. 


XLI. Viceroy or New Spain. 


1746 — 1755. : 
The Conde de Revilla-Gigedo, the first of that name who was 
viceroy of Mexico, reached the capital on the 9th of July, 1746, 
and on the 12th of the same month, his master, Philip V. died, 
leaving Ferdinand VI. as his successor. Under the reign of this 


7 


.4 


MEXICO UNDER REVILLA-GIGEDO I.—— FERDINAND VI. 239 


enlightened nobleman the colony prospered rapidly, and his services 
un increasing the royal revenues were so signally successful that 
he was retained in power for nine years. Mexico had become a 
large and beautiful city. The mining districts were extraordinarily 
prolific, and no year of his government yielded less than eleven 
millions of dollars;—the whole sum that passed through the 
national mint during his term being one hundred and fourteen 
millions, two hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars of the pre- 
cious metals! The population of the capital amounted to fifty 
thousand families composed of Spaniards, Europeans and creoles, 
-—forty thousand mestizos, mulattoes, negroes, — and eight thou- 
sand Indians, who inhabited the suburbs. This population annu- 
ally consumed at least two millions arobas of flour, about a hundred 
and sixty thousand fanegas of corn, three hundred thousand sheep, 
fifteen thousand five hundred beeves, and about twenty-five thou- 
sand swine. In this account, the consumption of many religious 
establishments is not included, as they were privately supplied 
from their estates, nor can we count the numerous and valuable 
presents which were sent by residents of the country to their friends 
in the capital. 


It has been already said that this viceroy augmented largely the 
income of Spain. The taxes of the capital, accounted for by the 
Consulado, were collected yearly, and amounted to three hundred 
and thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three dollars, 
whilst those of the whole viceroyalty reached seven hundred and 
eighteen thousand, three hundred and seventy-five. The income 
from pulque alone, — the favorite drink of the masses, — was one 
hundred and seventy-two thousand dollars, while other imposts 
swelled the gross income in proportion. 

The collection of tributes was not effected invariably in the same 
manner throughout the territory of New Spain. In Mexico the 
Administrador-General imposed this task on the justices whose 
duty it was to watch over the Indians. The aborigines in the 
capital were divided into two sections, one comprising the Teno- 
chas of San Juan, and the other the Tlaltelolcos of Santiago, both 
of which had their governors and other police officers, according 
to Spanish custom. The first of these bands, dwelling on the 
north and east of the capital, was, in the olden time, the most 
powerful and noble, and at that period numbered five thousand 
nine hundred families. The other division, existing on the west 
and south, was reduced to two thousand five hundred families. In 


236 INDIANS — TAXES — COLONIES IN THE NORTH. 


the several provinces of the viceroyalty the Indian tributes were 
collected through the intervention of one hundred and forty-nine 
chief alcaldes who governed them, and who, before they took pos- 
session of their offices, were required to give security for the 
tribute taxed within their jurisdiction. The frontier provinces of 
this vast territory, inhabited only by garrisons, and a few scattered 
colonists, were exempt from this odious charge. In all the various 
sections of the nation, however, the Indians were accurately enu- 
merated. ‘T'wo natives were taxed together, in order to facilitate 
the collection by making both responsible, and, every four months, 
from this united pair, six reales were collected, making in all 
eighteen in the course of the year. This gross tax of two dollars 
and twenty-five cents was divided as follows: eight reales were 
taxed as tribute ; — four for the royal service ; — four and a half as 
commutation for a half fanega of corn which was due to the royal 
granary ;— half a real for the royal hospital, in which the Indians 
were lodged when ill; another half real for the costs of their law 
suits; and, finally, the remaining half real for the construction — 
of cathedrals. 


In 1748, the Count Revilla-Gigedo, in conformity to the orders 
of the king, and after consultation in general meeting with the 
officers of various tribunals, determined to lay the foundation of a 
grand colony in the north, under the guidance of Colonel José 
Escandon, who was forthwith appointed governor. This decree, 
together with an account of the privileges and lands which would 
be granted to colonists, was extensively published, and, in a few 
years, a multitude of families and single emigrants founded eleven 
villages of Spaniards and mulattoes between Alta-Mira and Ca- 
margo. The Indians who were gathered in this neighborhood 
composed four missions ; and, although it was found impossible to 
clear the harbor of Santander, or to render it capable of receiving 
vessels of deep draft, the government was nevertheless enabled to 
- found several flourishing villages which were vigilant in the pro- 
* tection of the coast against pirates. 

In 1749 the crops were lost in many of the provinces where 
the early frost blighted the fields. of corn and fruit. The crowded 
capital and its neighborhood, fortunately, did not experience the 
want of food, which in other regions of the tierra adentro amounted 
to absolute famine. The people believed that the frown of Heaven 
was upon the land, — for, to this calamity, repeated earthquakes 
were added, and the whole region, from the volcano of Colima to 


FAMINE — MINES AT BOLANOS — HORCASITAS. 237 


far beyond Gaudalajara, was violently shaken and rent, causing the 
death of many persons and the ruin of large and valuable villages. 

In 1750, Mexico was still free from scarcity, and even able, not 
only to support its own population, but to feed the numerous 
strangers who fled to it from the unfruitful districts. Yet, in the 
cities and villages of the north and west, where the crops had been 
again lost, want and famine prevailed as in the previous year. 
From Guanajuato, a city rich in mines, to Zacatecas, the scarcity 
of food was excessive, and the enormous sum of twenty-five dollars 
was demanded and paid for a fanega of corn. Neither man nor 
beast had wherewith to support life, and, for a while, the labors 
in the mines of this rich region were suspended. The unfortunate 


people left their towns in crowds to subsist on roots and berries 


which they found in the forests. Many of them removed to other 
parts of the country, and, as it was at this period that the rich 
veins of silver at Bolatios were discovered, some of the poor emi- 
grants found work and food in a district whose sudden mineral 
importance induced the merchants to supply it liberally with pro- 
visions. ‘The end of the year, however, was fortunately crowned 
with abundant crops. 


In 1755, — after founding the Presidio of Horcasitas, in Sonora, 
designed to restrain the incursions of the Apaches into that pro- 
vince, — the Count Revilla-Gigedo, was recalled, at his own re- 
quest, from the Mexican viceroyalty in order that he might devote 
himself to the management of his private property, which had 
increased enormously, during his government. In the history of 
Mexican viceroys, this nobleman is celebrated as a speculative and 
industrious trader. ‘There was no kind of commercial enterprise 
or profitable trafhc in which he did not personally engage. His 
palace degenerated into an exchange, frequented by all kinds of 
adventurers, while gaming tables were openly spread out to catch 
the doubloons of the viceroyal courtiers. The speculations and 
profits of Revilla-Gigedo enabled him to found Mayorazgos for his 
Sons in Spain, and he was regarded, throughout Europe, as the 
richest vassal of Ferdinand the VI. His son, who subsequently 
became a Mexican viceroy, and was the second bearing the family 
title, labored to blot out the stain which the trading propensities of 
his father had cast upon his name. He was a model of pro- 


_ priety in every respect; but, whilst he made no open display of 


anxiety to enrich himself corruptly through official influence or 


position, he, nevertheless, exhibited the avaricious traits of his 
dl 


238 CHARACTER OF REVILLA-GIGEDO — VILLALON VICEROY. 


father in requiring from his butler, each night an exact account 3 


of every cent that was spent during the day, and pea dish that 
was prepared in his kitchen. 


Notwithstanding the notorious and corrupting habits of the first — 


count, that personage contrived to exercise an extraordinary in- 
Parente or control over the masses in Mexico. ‘The people feared 
and respected him; and, upon a certain occasion, when they were 


roused in the capital and gathered in menacing mobs, this resolute — 


viceroy, whose wild and savage aspect aided the authority of his 
determined address, rode into the midst of the turbulent assemblage 


without a soldier in attendance, and immediately dispersed the — 


revolutionists by the mere authority of his presence and command. 


Don Acustin DE AHUMADA yY VILLALON, 
MARQUES DE LAS AMARILLAS, 
XLII. Vicrroy or New Spain. 
1755 — 1760. 
The government of the Marques de las Amarillas commenced on 


the 10th of November, 1755; and he immediately devoted himself 
to the task of reforming many of the abuses which had doubtless 


crept into the administration of public affairs during the reign of — 


his trafficing predecessor. Valuable mineral deposits were dis- 
covered in New Leon, whose veins were found so rich and 
tempting that crowds of miners from Zacatecas and Guanajuato 
flocked to the prolific region. Great works were commenced to 
facilitate the working of the drifts, but the wealth which had so 
suddenly appeared on the scene as if by magic, vanished amid the 
interminable quarrels and law suits of the parties. Many of the 
foremost adventurers who imagined themselves masters of incalcu- 
lable riches were finally forced to quit their discoveries, on foot, 
without a dollar to supply themselves with food. 

In 1759 a general mourning was proclaimed in Mexico for the 
queen of Spain, Maria Barbara of Portugal, who was speedily 
followed to the tomb by her husband Ferdinand VI. His brother 
Charles III. ascended the throne, and whilst the mingled ceremo- 
nies of sorrow and festivity for the dead and living were being 
performed in Mexico, the worthy viceroy was suddenly struck with 
apoplexy which his physicians thought might be alleviated by his 
residence in the healthful and lower regions of Cuernavaca. But 
either the change of level nor temperature improved the condition 


y 
hy i 


CHARLES III— CAGIGAL VICEROY. 239 


of the viceroy, who died of this malady on the 5th of January, 
1760, in the beautiful city to which he had retreated. He was a 
remarkable contrast to his predecessor in many respects, and 
although he had been viceroy for five years, it is stated, as a 
singular fact in the annals of Mexico, that he left his widow 
poor and altogether unprovided for. But his virtuous conduct as 
an efficient minister of the crown had won the confidence and 
respect of the Mexicans who were anxious to succor those whom 
he left dependant upon the favor of the crown. The liberality of 
the archbishop Rubio y Salinas, however supplied all the wants of 
the gentle Marquesa, who was thus enabled to maintain a suitable 
state until her return to the court of Spain, where the merits of her 
husband, as a Spanish soldier in the Italian wars, doubtless procured 
her a proper pension for life. 

As the death of the Marques de las Amarillas was sudden and 
unexpected, the king of Spain had not supplied the government 
with the usual pliego de mortaja, or mortuary despatch, which was 
generally sent from Madrid whenever the health of a viceroy was 
feeble, so as to supply his place by an immediate successor in the 
event of death. The Aupienctia, of course, became the depository 
of executive power during the interregnum, and its dean Don 
Francisco Echavarri, directed public affairs, under its sanction, 
until the arrival of the viceroy, ad interim, from Havana. 


Don Francisco DE CaGIGAL, 
XLITI. Viceroy or New Sparn. 
1760 — Aprit To OcTOBER. 


The government of this personage was so brief, and his tenure 
so completely nominal, that he employed himself merely in the 
adornment of the capital and the general police of the colony. He 
was engaged in some improvements in the great square of Mexico, 
when his successor arrived ; but he left the capital with the hearty 
regrets of the townsmen, for his intelligence and affability had won 
their confidence and induced them to expect the best results from 
his prolonged reign. 


CHAPTER XIII. 
1760 — 1771. 


MARQUES DE CRUILLAS VICEROY. — CHARLES III. PBOCLAIMED. 
‘ HAVANA TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. — MILITARY PREPARATIONS 
— PEACE — PESTILENCE. — GALVEZ VISITADOR — REFORMS — 
TOBACCO MONOPOLY. — DE CROIX VICEROY. — THE JESUITS — 
THEIR EXPULSION FROM SPANISH DOMINIONS — THEIR ARRIVAL 
IN EUROPE — BANISHED. — CAUSES OF THIS CONDUCT TO THE 
ORDER. — ORIGIN OF THE MILITARY CHARACTER OF MEXICO. 


Don Joaquim pe Monserrat, Marques DE CRUILLAS, 
XLIV. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1760 — 1766. 


In 1761, soon after the entrance of the Marques de Cruillas into 
Mexico, the ceremony of proclaiming the accession of Charles III, 
to the throne, was performed with great pomp, by the viceroy, the ~ 
nobles, and the municipality. But the period of rejoicing was 
short, for news soon reached Mexico, that war was again declared 
between Spain and England; a fact which was previously con- 
cealed, in consequence of the interception of despatches that 
had been sent to Havana. Don Juan de Prado was the governor 
of that important point, and he, as well as the viceroy of Mexico, 
had consequently been unable to make suitable preparations for the 
attacks of the British on the West Indian and American posses- 
sions of Spain. 

In the meantime an English squadron, which had recruited its 
forces and supplied itself with provisions in Jamaica, disembarked 
its troops without resistance, on the 6th of June, two leagues 
east of the Moro Castle. The Havanese fought bravely with 
various success against the invaders until the 30th of July, 
when the Spaniards, satisfied that all further defence was vain and 
rash, surrendered the Moro Castle to the foe. On the 13th 
of August the town also capitulated; private property and the 
rights of religion being preserved intact. By this conquest the 


MILITARY PREPARATIONS — PEACE — PESTILENCE. Q41 


English obtained nine ships of the line, four frigates, and all the 
smaller vessels belonging to the sovereign and his subjects, which 
were in the port; while four millions, six hundred thousand dollars, 
belonging to the king and found in the city, swelled the booty 
of the fortunate invaders. 

Whilst this was passing in Havana it was falsely reported in 
Mexico that the British, being unsuccessful in their attacks on 
Cuba, had raised the siege, and were about to leave the islands for 
the Spanish main. The important port of Vera Cruz and its de- 
fences were of course not to be neglected under such circumstances. 
This incorrect rumor was, however, soon rectified by the authentic 
news of the capture of the Moro Castle and of the city of 
Havana. The Marques de Cruillas immediately ordered all the 
militia to be raised in the provinces, even six hundred miles from 
the eastern coast, and to march forthwith to Vera Cruz. That 
city and its castle were at once placed in the best possible condi- 
tion of defence; but the unacclimated troops from the high and 
healthy regions of the interior who had been brought suddenly to 
the sickly sea shore of the tverra caliente, suffered so much from 
malaria, that the viceroy was obliged to withdraw them to Jalapa 
and Perote. 

Whilst Mexico was thus in a state of alarm in 1763, and whilst 
the government was troubled in consequence of the arrest of a 
clergyman who had been seized as a British spy, the joyful news 
arrived that peace had again been negotiated between France and 
England. 

Pestilence, as well as war, appears to have menaced Mexico at 
this epoch. The small pox broke out in the capital and carried 
off ten thousand persons. Besides this, another malady, which is 
described by the writers of the period as similar to that which had 
ravaged the country a hundred and seven years before, and which 
terminated by an unceasing flow of blood from the nostrils, filled 
the hospitals of the capital with its victims. From Mexico this 
frightful and contagious malady passed to the interior, where im- 
mense numbers, unable to obtain medical advice, medicine, or at- 
tendance, were carried to the grave. 

The general administration of the viceroyalty by the Marques de 
Cruillas was unsatisfactory both to the crown and the people of 
New Spain. The best historians of the period are not definite in 
their charges of misconduct against this nobleman, but his de- 
meanor as an executive officer required the appointment of a visi- 
fador, in order to examine and remedy his abuse of power. The 


242 GALVEZ VISITADOR — REFORMS — TOBACCO MONOPOLY. 


person charged with this important task,— Don José Galvez, —- 
was endowed with unlimited authority entirely independent of the 
viceroy, and he executed his office with severity. He arrested 
high officers of the government, and deprived them of their em- 
_ployments. His extraordinary talents and remarkable industry 
enabled him to comprehend at once, and search into, all the tribu- 
nals and governmental posts of this vast kingdom. In Vera Cruz 
he removed the royal accountants from their offices. In Puebla, 
and in Mexico, he turned out the superintendents of customs, and 
throughout the country, all who were employed in public civil 
stations, feared, from day to day, that they would either be sus- 
pended or deposed. Whilst Galvez attended, thus, to the faithful 
discharge of duty by the officers of the crown, he labored, also, to 
increase the royal revenue. Until that period the cultivation of 
tobacco had been free, but Galvez determined to control it, as in 
Spain, and made its preparation and sale a monopoly for the 
government. Gladly as his other alterations and reforms were re- 
ceived by the people, this interference with one of their cherished 
luxuries was well nigh the cause of serious difficulties. In the city — 
of Cordova, and in many neighboring places, some of the wealthiest — 
and most influential colonists depended for their fortunes and in- 
come upon the unrestrained production and manufacture of this 
article. Thousands of the poorer classes were engaged in its pre- 
paration for market, while in all the cities, towns, and villages, 
there were multitudes who lived by selling it to the people. Every 
man, and perhaps every woman, in Mexico, used tobacco, and con- 
sequently this project of the visttador gave reasonable cause for dis- 
satisfaction to the whole of New Spain. Nevertheless, the firmness 
of Galvez, the good temper of the Mexicans, and their habitual 
submission to authority, overcame all difficulties. The inhabitants 
of Cordova were not deprived of all control over the cultivation of 
tobacco, and were simply obliged to sell it to the officers of the 
king at a definite price, whilst these personages were ordered to 
continue supplying the families of the poor, with materials for the 
manufacture of cigars; and by this device the public treasury was 
enabled to derive an important revenue from an article of universal 
consumption. Thus the visitador appears to have employed his 
authority in the reform of the colony and the augmentation of the 
royal revenue, without much attention to the actual viceroy, who 
was displaced in 1766. The fiscal or attorney general of the Audi- 
encia of Manilla, Don José Aréché, was ordered officially to ex- 
amine into the executive conduct of the Marques de Cruillas who 


DE CROIX VICEROY 


THE JESUITS. 243 


had retired from the city of Mexico to Cholula, and although it 
had been universally the custom to permit other viceroys to answer 
the charges made against them by attorney, this favor was denied 
to the Marques, who was subjected to much inconvenience and 
suffering during the long trial that ensued. 


Don Cartos FRANciIsco DE Crorx, Marques DE Crorx, 


XLV. Viceroy oF New Spain. 
766 — bad 


The Marques de Croix was a native of the city of Lille in Flan- 
ders, and, born of an illustrious family, had obtained his military 
renown by a service of fifty years in the command of Ceuta, Santa- 
Maria, and the Captaincy General of Galicia. He entered Mexico 
as viceroy on the 25th of August, 1766. 

For many years past, in the old world and in the new, there had 
been a silent but increasing fear of the Jesuits. It was known that 
in America their missionary zeal among the Indians in the remotest 
provinces was unequalled. ‘The winning manners of the culti- 
vated gentlemen who composed this powerful order in the Catholic 
church, gave them a proper and natural influence with the children 
of the forest, whom they had withdrawn from idolatry and _ par- 
tially civilized. But the worthy Jesuits, did not confine their 
zealous labors to the wilderness. Members of the order, all of 
whom were responsible and implicitly obedient to their great 
central power, were spread throughout the world, and were found 
in courts and camps as well as in the lonely mission house of the 
frontier or in the wigwam of the Indian. They had become rich 
as well as powerful, for, whilst they taught christianity, they did 
not despise the wealth of the world. Whatever may have been 
their personal humility, their love for the progressive power and 
dignity of the order, was never permitted for a moment to sleep. 
A body, stimulated by such a combined political and ecclesiastical 
passion, all of whose movements, might be controled by a single, 
central, despotic will, may now be kept in subjection in the old 
world, where the civil and military police is ever alert in support 
of the national authorities. But, at that epoch of transition in 
America whose vast regions were filled with credulous and 
ignorant aborigines, and thinly sprinkled with intelligent, educated 
and loyal Europeans, it was deemed dangerous to leave the super- 
stitious Indians to become the prey, rather than the flock, — the 
instruments, rather than the acolytes of such insidious shepherds. 


Q44 THEIR EXPULSION FROM SPANISH DOMINIONS. 
we 


These fears had seized the mind of Charles III. who dreaded a 
divided dominion in America, with the venerable fathers. We do 
not believe that there was just cause for the royal alarm. We do 
not suppose that the Jesuits whose members, it is true, were 
composed of the subjects of all the Catholic powers of Europe, 
ever meditated political supremacy in Spanish America, or designed 
to interfere with the rights of Charles or his successors. But the 
various orders of the Roman church, — the various congregations, 
and convents of priests and friars, — are unfortunately, not free 
from that jealous rivalry which distinguishes the career of laymen 
in all the other walks of life. 

It may be that some of the pious brethren, whose education, 
manners, position, wealth or power, was not equal to the influence, 
social rank and control, of the Jesuits, had, perhaps, been anxious 
to drive this respectable order from America. It may be, that the 
king and his council were willing to embrace any pretext to rid his 
colonial possessions of the Jesuits. But certain it is, that on the 
25th of June, before the dawn of day, at the same hour, through- 
out the whole of New Spain the decree for their expulsion was 
promulgated by order of Charles. The king was so anxious 
upon this subject, that he wrote, with his own hand, to the viceroy 
of Mexico, soliciting his best services in the fulfilment of the royal 
will. When the question was discussed in the privy council of the 
sovereign, a chart of both Americas was spread upon the table, — 
the distances between the colleges of the Jesuits accurately calcu- 
lated, — and the time required for the passage of couriers, carefully 
estimated, so that the blow might fall simultaneously upon the 
order. ‘The invasion of Havana by the English and its successful 
capture, induced the king to supply his American possessions. 
with better troops, and more skilful commanders than had been, 
hitherto, sent to the colonies. Thus there were various, veteran 
Spanish regiments in Mexico capable of restraining any outbreaks 
of the people in favor of the outraged fathers who had won their 
respect and loyal obedience. 

At the appointed hour, the order of Charles, was enforced. 
The Jesuits were shut up in their colleges, and all avenues to 
these retreats of learning and piety were filled with troops. 
The fathers were despatched from Mexico for Vera Cruz on 
the 28th of June, surrounded by soldiers. They halted awhile 
in the town of Guadalupe, where the Visifador Galvez, who 
governed the expedition, permitted them to enter, once more, into 
the national sanctuary, where amid the weeping crowds of Mexi- 


THEIR ARRIVAL IN EUROPE — BANISHED. 245 


eans, they poured forth their last, and fervent vows, for the 
happiness of a people, who idolized them. ‘Their entrance into 
Jalapa was a triumph. Windows, balconies, streets, and house 
tops were filled with people, whose demeanor manifested what was 
passing in their hearts, but who were restrained by massive ranks 
of surrounding soldiery from all demonstration in behalf of the 
banished priests. In Vera Cruz some silent but respectful tokens 
of veneration were bestowed upon the fathers, several of whom 
died in that pestilential city before the vessels were ready to 
transport them beyond the sea. Nor did their sufferings cease with 
their departure from New Spain. ‘Their voyage was long, tem- 
pestuous and disastrous, and after their arrival in Spain, under strict 
guardianship, they were again embarked for Italy, where they 
were finally settled with a slender support i Rome, Bologna, 
Ferrara and other cities, in which they honored the country whence 
they had been driven by literary labors and charitable works. 
The names of Abade, Alegre, Clavigero, Landibares, Maneyro, 
Cavo, Lacunza and Marques, sufficiently attest the historical merit 
of these Mexican Jesuits, who were victims of the suspicious 
Charles. For a long time the Mexican mind was sorely vexed by 
the oppressive act against this favorite order. But the Visitador 
Galvez imposed absolute silence upon the people, — telling them 
in insulting language that it was their ‘sole duty to obey,”’ and 
that they must ‘‘speak neither for nor against the royal order, 
which had been passed for motives reserved alone for the sove- 
reign’s conscience !”’ 

Thus, all expression of public sentiment, as well as of amiable 
feeling, at this daring act against the worthiest and most benevolent 
clergymen of Mexico was effectually stifled. It had been well for 
New Spain if Charles had banished the Friars, and spared the 
Jesuits. The church of Mexico, in our age, would then have 
resembled the church of the United States, whose foundation and 
renown are owing chiefly to the labors of enlightened Sulpicians 
and Jesuits, as well as to the exclusion of monks and of all the 
orders that dwell in the idle seclusion of cloisters instead of passing 
useful lives amid secular occupations and temporal interests. If 
the act of Henry VIII. in England was unjust and cruel, it was 
matched both in boldness and wickedness by the despotic decree 
of the unrelenting Charles of Spain. Nor can the latter sovereign 
claim the merit of having substituted virtue for vice as the British 
king pretended he had done in the suppression of the monasteries. 


Henry swept priest and friar from his kingdom with the same 
32 


246 CAUSES OF THIS CONDUCT TO THE ORDER. 


blow; but the trimming Charles banished the intellectual Jesuit 
whilst he saved and screened the lazy monk. ; 

The pretext of Charles III. for his outrageous conduct was 
found in an insurrection which occurred on the evening of Palm 
Sunday, 1766, and gave up the capital of Spain, for forty-eight 
hours, to a lawless mob. It was doubtless the result of a precon- 
certed plan to get rid of an obnoxious minister; and, as soon as it 
was known that this personage had been exiled, the rioters in- 
stantly surrendered their arms, made friends with the soldiers, and 
departed to their homes. In fact, it was a political intrigue, which 
the king and his minister charged on some of the Spanish grandees 
and on the Jesuits. But as the former were too powerful to be 
assailed by the king, his wrath was vented on the Fathers of the 
Order of Jesus, whose lives, at this time, were not only innocent — 
but meritorious. | 

‘¢Some years preceding, on a charge as destitute of foundation, 
they had been expelled from Portugal. In 1764, their inveterate 
foe, the Duke de Choiseul, minister of Louis XV., had driven them — 
from France ; and, in Spain, their possessions were regarded with an 
avaricious eye by some of the needy courtiers. To effect their down- 
fall, the French minister eagerly jomed with the advocates of plun- 
der; and intrigues were adopted which must cover their authors 
with everlasting infamy. Not only was the public alarm carefully 
excited by a report of pretended plots, and the public indignation, 
by slanderous representations of their persons and principles ; but, 
in the name of the chiefs of the order, letters were forged, which 
involved the most monstrous doctrines and the most criminal de- 
signs. A pretended circular from the general of the order, at 
Rome, to the provincial, calling on him to join with the insurgents; 
the deposition of perjured witnesses to prove that the recent com- 
motion was chiefly the work of the body, deeply alarmed Charles, 
and drew him into the views of the French cabinet. ’?! 

Spain was thus made a tool of France in an act of gross injustice, 
not only to the reverend sufferers, but to the people over whose 
spiritual and intellectual wants they had so beneficially watched. 

From this digression to the mingled politics of Mexico and 
Europe we shall now return to the appropriate scene of our brief 
annals. The captain of so important a port as Havana, and the 
inadequate protection of the coast along the main, obliged the 
government to’ think seriously about the increase and discipline of 
domestic troops, and especially, to improve the condition of the 


1 Dr. Dunham’s History of Spain and Portugal, vol. 5, p. 175. 


ORIGIN OF THE MILITARY CHARACTER OF MEXICO. 247 


coast defence. ‘These fears were, surely, not groundless. The 
possessions of Great Britain, north of Mexico, on the continent, 
were growing rapidly in size and importance; and from the pro- 
vinces which now form the United States, the viceroy imagined 
England might easily despatch sufficient troops, without being 
obliged to transport reinforcements from Europe. Accordingly 
suitable preparations were made to receive the enemy should he 
venture to descend suddenly on the Spanish main. The veteran 
regiments of Savoy and Flanders were sent to the colony in June, 
1768, and the Marshal de Rubi was charged with the disposition of 
the army. From that period, it may be said, that Mexico assumed the 
military aspect, which it has continuously worn to the present time. 

Besides the increase and improvement of the troops of the line, 
the government’s attention was directed towards the fortification 
of the ports and interior passes. The Castle of San Juan de Ulua 
was repaired at a cost of a million and a half of dollars. The 
small island of Anton Lizardo was protected by military works at 
an expense of a million two hundred thousand dollars. A splendid 
battery was sent from Spain for the castle, and the inefficient guns 
of Acapulco were despatched to the Fillipine islands to be recast 
and sent back to America. In the interior of the country, in the 
midst of the plain of Perote, the Castle of San Carlos was built in 
the most substantial and scientific manner; and although this fort- 
ress seems useless, placed as it is in the centre of a broad and 
easily traversed prairie, yet, at the time of its construction, it was 
designed as an entre depot between the capital and the coast, in 
which the royal property might always be safely kept until the mo- 
ment of exportation, instead of being exposed to the danger of a 
sudden seizure by the enemy in the port of Vera Cruz. Many 
other points along the road from Vera Cruz are better calculated to 
defend the interior passes of the country from invasion ; but as the 
attacks of the enemy were not expected to be made beyond the 
coast upon which they naturally supposed they would find the 
treasure they desired to plunder, it was deemed best to establish 
and arm the fortress of San Carlos de Perote. 

Such were some of the leading acts and occurrences in New 
Spain during the viceroyalty of the Marques de Croix. His gen- 
eral administration of affairs is characterized by justice. He lived 
in harmony with the rigid Visitador Galvez, and although the 
gossips of the day declared he was too fond of wine, yet, on his 
return to Spain he was named Captain General of the army, and 


treated most kindly by the king. 


CHAPTER XIV. 
1771 — 1784. 


BUCARELI Y URSUA VICEROY. — PROGRESS OF NEW SPAIN. — GOLD 
PLACERES IN SONORA.—MINERAL WEALTH AT THAT PERIOD. — 
INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. — LINE OF PRE- 
SIDIOS. — MAYORGA VICEROY. — POLICY OF SPAIN TO ENGLAND 
AND HER COLONIES. — OPERATIONS ON THE SPANISH MAIN, 
ETC.— MATIAS GALVEZ VICEROY — HIS ACTS. 


Don Antonio Maria DE Bucarexi y Ursva, 
LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE SPANISH ARMY, 
XLVI. Viceroy or New Spain. 

1771 —1779. 


Bucarewr reached Vera Cruz from Havana on the 23d of 
August, 1771, and took possession of the viceroyalty on the 2d of 
the following month. During his administration the military char- 
acter of the colony was still carefully fostered, whilst the domestic 
interests of the people were studied, and every effort made to es- 
tablish the public works and national institutions upon a firm basis. 
The new mint and the Monte de Piadad are monuments of this 
epoch. Commerce flourished in those days in Mexico. The fleet 
under the command of Don Luis de Cordova departed for Cadiz 
on the 30th of November, 1773, with twenty-six millions two hun- 
dred and fifty-five dollars, exclusive of a quantity of cacao, coch- 
ineal and twenty-two marks of fine gold, and the fleet of 1774 was 
freighted with twenty-six millions four hundred and fifty-seven 
thousand dollars. : , 

Nor was the accumulation of wealth derived at that time from 
the golden placeres of Cieneguilla in Sonora less remarkable. 
From the 1st of January, 1773, to the 17th of November of the 
year following, there were accounted for, in the royal office at 


MINERAL WEALTH AT THAT PERIOD. 949 


Alamos, four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-two marks of 
gold, the royal duties on which, of tithe and senorage, amounted to 
seventy-two thousand, three hundred and forty-eight dollars. The 
custom house of Mexico, according to the accounts of the consulado, 
produced, in 1772, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand and 
forty-one dollars, the duty on pulque alone, being two hundred and 
forty-four thousand, five hundred and thirty. 

In 1776, Bucareli endeavored to liberate trade from many of the 
odious restrictions which had been cast around it by old commer- 
cial usages, and by the restrictive policy of Spain. The con- 
sulado of Mexico complained to Bucareli of the suffering it en- 
dured by the monopoly which had hitherto been enjoyed by the 
merchants of Cadiz, and through the viceroy solicited the court to 
be permitted to remit its funds to Spain, and to bring back the re- 
turn freights in vessels on its own account. Bucareli supported 
this demand with his influence, and may be said to have given the 
first impulse to free-trade. Meanwhile, the mineral resources of 
Mexico were not neglected. During the seven years of Bucareli’s 
reign, the yield of the mines had every year been greater than at 
any period since the conquest. One hundred and twenty-seven 
millions, three hundred and ninety-six thousand dollars, in gold 
and silver, were coined during his viceroyalty. Laborde, in Zaca- 
tecas, and Terreros in Pachuca, had undertaken extensive works at 
the great and rich mine of Quebradilla and in the splendid vein of 
Vizcayna. Other mines were most successfully wrought by their 
proprietors. From 1770 to the end of 1778, Don Antonio Obregon 
presented to the royal officers, in order to be taxed, four thousand 
six hundred and ninety-nine bars of silver, the royal income from 
which amounted to six hundred and forty-eight thousand nine hun- 
dred and seventy-two dollars. The same individual had, more- 
over, presented to the same personage, fifty-three thousand and 
eighty-eight castellanos of gold, which paid thirteen thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-one dollars in duties. In order to work his 
_ metals, Obregon had been furnished, to that date, one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-nine quintals of quicksilver, for which he paid a 
hundred and fifty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-one dollars. 

In June, 1778, the mineral deposits of Hostotipaquillo, in the 
province of Guadalajara, now Jalisco, were discovered, and pro- 
mised the most extraordinary returns of wealth. In the following 
year, the valuable mines of Catorce, were accidentally found by a 
soldier whilst searching for a lost horse. All these discoveries and 
beneficial labors induced Bucareli to recommend the mineral inter- 


250 INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 


ests of New Spain particularly to the sovereign, and various 
persons were charged to explore the country, for the discovery of 
quicksilver mines, which it was alleged existed in Mexico. The 
extraction of quicksilver from American mines had hitherto been 
prohibited by Spain, but the fear of wars, which might prevent its 
importation from abroad, and consequently, destroy the increasing 
mineral industry of the nation, induced the court to send Don 
Raphael Heling and Don Antonio Posada, with several subordin- 
ates, who formerly wrought in the mines of Almaden, to examine 
the deposits at Talchapa and others in the neighborhood of Aju- 
chitlan, in October, 1778, under the direction of padre Alzate. 
But this reconnoisance proved unavailing at that time, inasmuch 
as the explorers found no veins or deposits which repaid the cost 
and labor of working. 

At this epoch the Spanish government began to manifest a 
desire to propagate information in its American possessions. 
There is a gleam of intellectual dawn seen in a royal order of 
Charles, in 1776, commanding educated ecclesiastics to devote 
themselves to the study of Mexican antiquities, mineralogy, metal- 
lurgy, geology, and fossils. This decree was directed to the 
clergy because his majesty, perhaps justly supposed, that they were 
the only persons who possessed any knowledge of natural sciences, 
whilst the rest of his American subjects were in the most profound 
ignorance. Archbishop Lorenzano published in Mexico in 1770 
his annotated edition of the letters of Cortéz, which is a well 
printed work, adorned with coarse engravings, a few maps, and 
the curious fac-simile pictures of the tributes paid to the Emperor 
Montezuma. But the jealous monks of the inquisition kept a 
vigilant watch over the issues of the press, and we find that, in 
those days, the commercial house of Prado and Freyre was forced 
to crave a license from the court empowering them to ship two 
boxes of types to be used in the printing of the calendar! 

The administration of Bucareli was not disturbed by insurrec- 
tions among the creoles and Spaniards, for he was a just ruler and 
the people respected his orders, even when they were apparently 
injurious to their interests. The viceroy adorned their capital, 
built aqueducts, improved roads, and facilitated intercourse between 
the various parts of the country; but the Indians of the north in 
the province of Chihuahua harassed the colonists dwelling near the 
outposts during nearly all the period of his government. These 
warlike, nomadic tribes have been the scourge of the frontier 
provinces since the foundation of the first outpost settlement. 


- LINE OF PRESIDIOS — MAYORGA VICEROY. 251 


They are wild hunters, and appear to have no feeling in common 
with those southern bands who were subdued by the mingled 
influences of the sword and of the cross into tame agriculturists. 
Bueareli attacked and conquered parties of these wandering war- 
riors, but every year fresh numbers descended upon the scattered 
pioneers along the frontier, so that the labor of recolonization and 
fighting was annually repeated. Towards the close of his admin- 
istration, De Croix, who succeeded Hugo Oconor in the command 
along the northern line, established a chain of well appointed 
presidios, which in some degree restrained the inroads of these 
barbarians. 

Bucareli died, after a short illness, on the 9th of April, 1779, 
and his remains were deposited in the church of Guadalupe in 
front of the sacred and protecting image of the virgin who watches, 
according to the legend, over the destinies of Mexico. 


Don Martin pE Mayorea, 


XLVII. Viczroy or New SPAIN. 
1779217783: 


In consequence of the death of Bucareli the Audiencia assumed 
the government of New Spain until the appointment of his succes- 
sor, and in the meanwhile, on the 18th of May, 1779, Charles III, 
solemnly declared war against England. The misunderstanding 
which gave rise to the revolutionary outbreak in the English colo- 
nies of North America was beginning to attract the notice of Eu- 
rope. France saw in the quarrel between the Americans and the 
British an opportunity to humiliate her dangerous foe; and al- 
though Spain had no interest in such a contest, the minister of 
Charles, Florida Blanca, persuaded his master to unite with France 
in behalf of the revolted colonies. Spain, in this instance, as in 
the expulsion of the Jesuits, was, doubtless, submissive to the will 
of the French court, and willingly embraced an occasion to humble 
the pride or destroy the power of a haughty nation whose fleets 
and piratical cruisers had so long preyed upon the wealthy com- 
merce of her American possessions. ‘The Spanish minister did 
not probably dream of the dangerous neighbor whose creation he 
was aiding, north of the Gulf of Mexico. It is not likely that he 
imagined republicanism would be soon and firmly established in 
the British united colonies of America, and that the infectious love 
of freedom would spread beyond the wastes of Texas and the 
deserts of California to the plateaus and plains of Mexico and Peru. 


POLICY OF SPAIN TO ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. 252 


The policy was at once blind and revengeful. If it was produced 
by the intrigue of France, the old hereditary foe and rival of Eng- — 
land, it was still less pardonable, for a fault or a crime when per- 
petrated originally and boldly by a nation sometimes rises almost 
into glory, if successful; but a second-hand iniquity, conceived 
in jealousy and vindictiveness, is as mean as it is short sighted. 
England had no friends at that epoch. Her previous conduct had 
been so selfishly grasping, that all Europe rejoiced when her colo- 
nial power was broken by the American revolution. Portugal, Hol- 
land, Russia, Morocco and Austria, all, secretly favored the course 
of Spain and France, and the most discreet politicians of Europe 
believed that the condition of Great Britain was hopeless. 

The declaration of this impolitic war was finally made in Mexico 
on the 12th of August, 1779, before the arrival of Mayorga, the 
new viceroy, who did not reach the capital till the 23d of the same 
month. The Mexicans were not as well acquainted with the polli- 
tics of the world as the Spanish cabinet, and did not appreciate 
all the delicate and diplomatic motives which actuated Charles III. 
They regarded a war with England as a direct invitation to the 
British to ravage their coasts and harass their trade ; and, accord- 
ingly as soon as the direful news was announced, prayers were so- 
lemnly uttered in all the churches for the successful issue of the 
contest. Nor did war alone strike the Mexicans with panic; for 
in this same period the small pox broke out in the capital; and 
in the ensuing months in the space of sixty-seven days, no less 
than eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-one persons were 
hurried by it to the grave. It was a sad season of pestilence and 
anxiety. The streets were filled with dead bodies, while the 
temples were crowded with the diseased and the healthy who 
rushed promiscuously to the holy images, in order to implore 
divine aid and compassion. This indiscriminate mixture of all 
classes and conditions, — this stupid reunion of the sound and the 
sick, whose superstitions led them to the altar instead of the hospi- 
tal, soon spread the contagion far and wide, until all New Spain 
suffered from its desolating ravages and scarcely a person was 
found unmarked by its frightful ravages. 

An expedition had been ordered during the viceroyalty of 
Bucareli to explore portions of the Pacific adjacent to the Mexi- 
can coast, and in February of 1799, it reached a point 55° 17 
minutes north. It continued its voyage, until on the Ist of July, 
when it took possession of the land at 60° 13 minutes, in the name 
of Charles III. It then proceeded onwards, in sight of the coast, 


OPERATIONS ON THE SPANISH MAIN, ETC. 253 


and on the Ist of August, arrived at a group of islands, at 59° 8! 
upon one of which the explorers landed and named the spot, 


“Nuestra Sefiora de Regla.”’ 


The expected assaults of the English in the Atlantic were not 
long withheld, for in this year, on the 20th of October, they seized 
Omoa in Guatemala, for the recovery of which the president, Don 
Matias Galvez, quitted the capital immediately and demanded 
succor from Mexico. The Indians, it is related, aided the British 
in this attack, but the assailants abandoned the captured port, after 
stripping it of its cannon and munitions of war, in consequence of 
the insalubrity of the climate. The British had established a post 
at a place then called Wallis, the centre of a region rich in dye- 
woods, and aptly situated so as to aid in the contraband trade 
which they carried on with Yucatan, Guatemala and Chiapas; and, 
accordingly Don Roberto Rivas Vetancourt attacked the settle- 
ment successfully, making prisoners of all the inhabitants, more 
than three hundred slaves, and capturing a number of small vessels. 
But just as hostilities ceased, two English frigates and another 
armed vessel, arrived to succor the settlement, and forced the 
Spanish governor to abandon his enterprise and depart with his 
flotilla. Nevertheless Vetancourt, burned more than forty different 
foreign establishments, and succeeded in capturing an English bri- 
gantine of forty-four guns. The commander believed that this sig- 
nal devastation of the enemy’s settlement and property would result 
in freeing the land from such dangerous neighbors. 

About this period the Spanish government detached General 
Solano and a part of his squadron, with orders for America, to aid 


‘in the military enterprises designed against Florida, in which 


Mexico was to take a significant part. This commander was to co- 
operate with Don Bernardo de Galvez, and both these personages, 
in the years 1779, 1780 and 1781, making common cause with 
the French against the English, carried the war actively up the 
Mississippi and into various portions of Florida. The remaining 
period of Mayorga’s viceroyalty was chiefly occupied with prepara- 
tions in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz against an assault from the 
British, and in suppressing, by the aid of the alcalde Urizar, a 
trifling revolt among the Indians of Izucar. An unfortunate disa- 
agreement arose between Mayorga and the Spanish minister Gal- 
vez, and he was finally, after many insults from the count, dis 

placed, in order to make reom for Don Matias Galvez. The un 

fortunate viceroy departed for Spain but never reached his native 
land. He died in sight of Cadiz, and his wife was indemnified for 

33 


254 MATIAS GALVEZ VICEROY —- HIS ACTS. 


the ill treatment of her husband by the contemptible gift of twenty 
thousand dollars. 

Mayorga was the victim apparently of an ill disposed minister, 
who controled the pliant mind of Charles. The viceroy in reality 
had discharged his duties as lieutenant of the king, with singular 
fidelity. All branches of art and industry in Mexico received his 
fostering care; but he had enemies who sought his disgrace at 
court, and they were finally successful in their shameful efforts. 1 


Don MatTIAs DE GALVEZ, 
XLVIII. Vicrroy or New Spain. 
1783 — 1784. 


Don Matias Galvez, hastened rapidly from Guatemala to take 
possession of the viceroyalty, and soon exhibited his generous 
character and his ardent desire to improve and embellish the beau- 
tiful capital. The academy of fine arts was one of his especial 
favorites, and he insisted that Charles should not only endow it 
with nine thousand dollars, but should render it an effective estab- 
lishment, by the introduction of the best models for the students. 
These evidences of his munificence and taste, still exist in the fine 
but untenanted halls of the neglected academy. Galvez directed 
his attention, also, to the police of Mexico and its prisons ; —he 
required the streets to be leveled and paved; prohibited the raising 
of recruits for Manilla, and solicited from the king authority to re- 
construct the magnificent palace of Chapultepec on the well known 
and beautiful hill of that name which hes about two miles west of 
the capital, still girt with its ancient cypresses. 

It was during the brief reign of this personage that the political 
Gazette of Mexico was established, and the exclusive privilege of 
its publication granted to Manuel Valdez. On the 3d of November 
Don Matias died, after a brief illness, unusually lamented by the 
people, from amidst whose masses he had risen to supreme power 
in the most important colony of Spain. Mexico had regarded his 
appointment as a singular good fortune, and it was fondly but 
vainly hoped that his reign might have been long, and that he 
would have been enabled to carry out the beneficent projects he 
designed for the country. 


As the death of this officer was sudden and unexpected, no 
carta de mortaja, or mortuary despatch, had been sent from Spain 


announcing his successor, and, accordingly the Audiencia assumed 
the reins of government until the arrival of the new viceroy. 


1 See Bustamante’s continuation of Cavo, vol. 3, pp. 45, 46. 


CHAPTER XV. 


1785 — 1794. 


BERNARDO DE GALVEZ VICEROY. — CHAPULTEPEC — GALVEZ DIES 
— HIS DAUGHTER. — HARO VICEROY— CORRUPTION OF AL- 
CALDES. — FLORES VICEROY —HIS SYSTEM OF RULING THE 
NORTHERN FRONTIER— MINING INTERESTS. —II. REVILLA-GI- 
GEDO VICEROY — CHARLES IV. — REVILLA-GIGEDO’S COLONIAL 
IMPROVEMENTS— HIS ADVICE AS TO CALIFORNIA — ANECDOTES 
OF HIS POLICE REGULATIONS. —THE STREET OF REVILLA- 
GIGEDO. — ARREST OF FUGITIVE LOVERS — PUNISHES THE 
CULPRITS. 


Don Brrnarpo DE GALVEZ, CounT DE GALVEZ, 


XLIX. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1785 — 1786. 


THe Count Galvez, son of the last viceroy, Don Matias, took 
charge of the government on the 17th of June, 1785, but enjoyed 
as brief a reign as his respected father. Hardly had he attained 
power when a great scarcity of food was experienced among the 
people of New Spain in consequence of an extraordinarily unfavora- 
ble season. The excellent disposition of the new officer was 
shown in his incessant and liberal efforts to relieve the public 
distress in all parts of the country afflicted by misery. Meetings 
were held and committees appointed under his auspices, composed 


of the most distinguished Spanish and native subjects to aid in 


this beneficent labor; and over four hundred thousand dollars were 
given by the Archbishop of Mexico, and the bishops of Puebla and 
Michoacan, to encourage agriculture, as well as to relieve the most 
pressing wants of the people. In order to afford employment to 
the indigent, at the same time that he permanently improved and 
beautified the capital and the country generally, the viceroy either 
commenced or continued a number of important public works, 
among which were the national roads and the magnificent palace 
of Chapultepec, the favorite retreat of his father. This splendid 


256 CHAPULTEPEC — GALVEZ DIES — HIS DAUGHTER. 


architectural combination of fortress and palace, was a costly 
luxury to the Spanish government, for the documents of the period 
declare that, up to the month of January, 1787, one hundred and 
twenty-three thousand and seventy-seven dollars had been expend- 
ed in its construction. Nor was the ministry well pleased with so 
Javish an outlay upon this royal domain. Placed on a solitary hill, 
at a short distance from the capital, and built evidently for the 
double purpose of defence and dwelling, it created a fear, in the 
minds of some sensitive persons, that its design might not be 
altogether so peaceful as was pretended. An ambitious viceroy, 
surrounded by troops whose attachment and firmness could be 
relied on, might easily convert the palace into a citadel; and it was 
‘noted that Galvez, had upon various occasions played the dema- 
gogue among the military men who surrounded him in the capital. 
All these fears were, however, idle. If the count, in reality, enter- 
tained any ambitious projects, or desired to put himself at the head 
of an American kingdom independent of Spain, these hopes were 
soon and sadly blighted by his early death. He expired on the 
30th of November, 1786, in the archiepiscopal palace of Tacubaya. 
‘His funeral ceremonies were conducted by the archbishop, and 
his honored remains interred in the church of San Fernando. At 
the period of the viceroy’s decease his wife was pregnant; and it 
is stated, in the chronicles of the day, — and we- mention it as a 
singular illustration of Spanish habits, —that the daughter, of 
which she was delivered in the following month of December, 
received the names of, Maria de Guadalupe Bernarda Isabel Felipa 
de Jesus Juana Nepomucena Felicitas, to which was joined at the 
period of the lady’s confirmation, the additional one of Fernanda! 
The Ayuntamiento of Mexico, in order to show its appreciation of 
the viceroy’s memory, offered to become god-father of the infant, 
and the ceremony of its baptism was performed with all the splen- 
dor of the Catholic church, in the presence of the court and of a 
portion of the army. The defunct viceroy had become popular - 
with the masses, and the people strove to manifest their love for 
the dead by their affectionate courtesy to his orphan daughter and 
desolate widow. 
'. The Avuprencia Rea assumed the government of Mexico, 
inasmuch as the Spanish ministry had provided no successor in 
the event of the count’s death. Its power continued until the 
following February, during which period no event of note occurred 
in New Spain, save the destruction by fire of valuable mining 
property at Bolafios, and a violent hurricane at Acapulco, accom- 


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HARO VICEROY — CORRUPTION OF ALCALDES. 257 


‘panied by earthquakes, which swept the sea over the coast, and 
caused great losses to the farmers and herdsmen who dwelt on the 
neighboring lowlands. 


Nunez DE Haro, ArcupisHop oF Mexico, 


L. VicrRoy, AD INTERIM, OF NEW SPAIN. 
Sn. 


The appointment of this eminent prelate to the viceroyalty ad 
interim by a royal order of 25th February, 1787, was perhaps one 
of those strokes of policy by which the Spanish ministry strove to 
reconcile and connect the ecclesiastical and civil unity of the 
American empire. ‘The sway of the archbishop, complimentary as 
it was to himself and to the church, was exceedingly brief, for he 
entered upon the government on the 8th of May and was super- 
ceded by Flores on the 17th of August of the same year. New 
Spain was undisturbed during his government; and no event 
is worthy of historical record in these brief annals of the country, 
save the effort that was made to prohibit the repartiumiento or sub- 
division of the Indians among the agriculturists and miners by the 
sub-delegados, who had succeeded the alcaldes mayores, in the per- 
formance of this odious task. The conduct of the latter personages 
had been extremely cruel to the natives. They either used their 
power to oppress the Indians, or had trafficked in the dispensation 
of justice by allowing the sufferers to purchase exemption from 
punishment; and it is related that in certain alcaldias mayores in 
Oaxaca, the alcaldes had enriched themselves to the extent of more 
than two hundred thousand dollars by these brutal exactions. In- 
humanity like this, was severely denounced to the king by the 
bishop Ortigoza,— who merited, according to Revilla-Gigedo, 
the title of the Saint Paul of his day, —and the eloquent prelate 
complained in behalf of his beloved Indians as vehemently as 
Las Casas at an earlier period of this loathsome oppression. But 
interest overcome the appeals of mercy in almost all instances 
since the foundation of the American empire. The Spaniards re- 
quired laborers. The ignorant and unarmed Indians of the south 
and of the table lands, were docile or unorganized, and, although 
the Spanish court and Council of the Indies seconded the viceroy’s 
zeal in attempting to suppress the cruelty of the planters and 
miners, the unfortunate aborigines only experienced occasional 
brief intervals of respite in the system of forced labor to which 
they were devoted by their legal task-masters. 


258 FLORES VICEROY — HIS SYSTEM OF RULING 


Don Manve. Ftores, 


LI. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1787 — 1789. 


Don Manuel Flores assumed the government of New Spain on 
the 16th of May, 1787, but his power over the finances of the na- 
tion was taken from him and given to Fernando Mangino, with the 
title of Superintendente sub-delegado de Hacienda. Flores was 
thus left in possession solely of the civil administration generally, 
and of the military organization of the viceroyalty. Being satisfied 
that the ordinary militia system of New Spain was inadequate for 
national protection during war, he immediately devoted himself to — 
the forced levy and equipment of three regiments of infantry, 
named “ Puebla,”’ ‘“‘Mexico”’ and ‘‘New Spain.’ The command 
of these forces was given to the most distinguished and noble young 
men of Mexico; — and as the minister Galvez died, and Mangino 
was, about this period, transferred to the Council of the Indies, the 
superintendence of the finances of Mexico, was appropriately re- 
stored again to the viceroyal government. 

The northern part of Mexico, in 1788 and for many previous 
years had been constantly ravaged by the wild Indian tribes that 
ranged across the whole frontier from the western limits of Sonora to 
the Gulf of Mexico. Immense sums were squandered in the support 
of garrisons or the maintenance of numerous officers, whose duty 
it was to hold these barbarians in check. But their efforts had 
been vain. The fine agricultural districts of Chihuahua, New 
Leon, New Mexico and even in parts of Texas, had attracted large 
numbers of adventurous pioneers into that remote region; yet no 
sooner did their fields begin to flourish and their flocks or herds to 
increase, than these savages descended upon the scattered settlers 
and carried off their produce and their families. Whenever the 
arms of New Spain obtained a signal victory over one of these 
marauding bands, the Indians would talk of peace and even con- 
sent to bind themselves by treaties. But these compacts were im- 
mediately broken, as soon as they found the country beginning to 
flourish again, or the military power in the least degree relaxed. 

Flores appears to have understood the condition of the northern 
frontier and the temper of the Indians. He did not believe that 
treaties, concessions or kindness would suffice to protect the 
Spanish pioneers, and yet he was satisfied that it was necessary to 


THE NORTH FRONTIER— MINING INTERESTS. 959 


‘sustain the settlements, in that quarter, in order to prevent the 
southern progress of European adventurers who were eager to 
seize the wild and debatable lands lying on both sides of the Rio 
Grande. Accordingly he proposed to the Spanish court to carry on 
a war of most inexorable character against the Apaches, Lipans 
and Mesclaros. He characterized, in his despatches, all the In- 
dian tribes dwelling or wandering between the Presidio of the Bay 
of Espiritu Santo, in the province of Texas, to beyond Santa Ger- 
trudis del Altar, in Sonora, —the two opposite points of the dan- 
gerous frontier line, — as Apaches or their hostile colleagues ; and 
he resolved to fight them, without quarter, truce, or mercy, until 
they surrendered unconditionally to the power of Spain. 

The subsequent history of these provinces, and the experience 
of our own government, have shown the wisdom of this advice in 
regard to a band of savages whose habits are peculiarly warlike 
and whose robber traits have made them equally dangerous to all 
classes of settlers in the lonely districts of the Rio Grande or of 
the Gila and Colorado of the west. His secretary, Bonilla, —who 
had fought bravely in the northern provinces, and was practically 
acquainted with warfare among these barbarians, — seconded the 
mature opinion of the viceroy. The plan was successful for the 
time, and the frontier enjoyed a degree of peace, whilst the military 
power was sustained throughout the line of Presidios, which it has 
not known since the revolution in Mexico attracted the attention 
of all towards the central parts of the nation and left the north 
comparatively exposed. Flores enforced his system rigidly, during 
his viceroyalty. He equiped the expeditions liberally; promoted 
the officers who distinguished themselves; rewarded the bravest 
soldiers; and despatched a choice regiment of dragoons to Durango, 
whose officers, formed, in that city, the nucleus of its future 
civilization. 

Nor was this viceroy stinted in his efforts to improve the capi- 
tal and protect the growing arts and sciences of the colony. He 
labored to establish a botanical garden, under the auspices of 
Don Martin Sesé; but the perfect realization of this beneficial and 
useful project was reserved for his successor the Count Revilla- 
Gigedo. 

The mining interests, too, were prospering, and improvements 
on the ancient Spanish system were sought to be introduced,. 
through the instrumentality of eleven German miners whose services 
had been engaged by the home government in Dresden, through 
its envoy Don Luis Orcis. These personages presented themselves 


260 II. REVILLA-GIGEDO VICEROY — CHARLES IV. 


in New Spain with the pompous title of practical professors of 
mineralogy, but they were altogether unskilled in the actual work- 
ing of mines, and unable to render those of Mexico more produc- 
tive. The only benefit derived from this mineralogical mission 
was the establishment of a course of chemical lectures in the 
seminary of mines, under the direction of Lewis Leinder, who set 
up the first laboratory in Mexico. 


On the 23d of December, 1788, the minister of the Indies 
apprised the viceroy of the death of Charles III, which. had 
occurred in the middle of that month. Funeral ceremonies were 
celebrated, with great pomp, in Mexico, in honor of the defunct 
monarch; and, on the 22d of February, 1789, the resignation of 
the viceroyalty by Flores, — who desired heartily to retire from 
public life— was graciously accepted by the Spanish court, and 
his successor named, in the person of the second Count Revilla- 
Gigedo. 


Tue Count pe REviLLA-GIGEDO — THE SECOND, 


LII. Viceroy or New Spain. 


1789 — 1794. 


This distinguished nobleman, whose name figures so favorably 
in the annals of Mexico, reached Guadalupe on the 16th of October 
1789, and on the following day entered the capital with all the 
pompous ceremonies usual in New Spain upon the advent of a 
new ruler. In the following month — the new sovereign Charles 
IV. was proclaimed ; and the viceroy, at once set about the regula- 


tion of the municipal police of his capital which seems to have — 


been somewhat relaxed since the days of his dreaded and avaricious 
father. Assassinations of the most scandalous and daring charac- 
ter, had recently warned the viceroy of the insecurity of life and 
property even in the midst of his guards. But Revilla-Gigedo 
possessed some of the sterner qualities that distinguished his parent, 
and never rested until the guilty parties were discovered and 
brought to prompt and signal justice. The capital soon exhibited 
a different aspect under his just and rigorous government. He did 
not trust alone to the reports of his agents in order to satisfy his 
mind in regard to the wants of Mexico; for he visited every quarter 
of the city personally, and often descended unexpectedly upon his 
officers when they least expected a visit from such a personage. 


i. 
pe 


> 
om 


i REVILLA-GIGEDO’S COLONIAL IMPROVEMENTS. 261 


The poor as well as the rich received his paternal notice. He 
enquired into their wants and studied their interests. One of his 
most beneficent schemes was the erection of a Monte Pio, for their 
relief, yet the sum he destined for this object was withheld by the. 
court and used for the payment of royal debts. Agriculture, hor- 
ticulture and botany were especially fostered by this enlightened 
nobleman. He carried out the project of his predecessor by 
founding the botanical garden, and liberally rewarded and encour- 
aged the pupils of this establishment, for he deemed the rich 
vegetable resources of Mexico quite as worthy of national attention 
as the mines which had hitherto absorbed the public interest. 
Literature, too, did not escape his fostering care, as far as the 
jealous rules of the Inquisition and of royal policy permitted its 
liberal encouragement by a viceroy. He found the streets of the 
capital and its suburbs badly paved and kept, and he rigidly 
enforced all the police regulations which were necessary for their 
purity and safety. As he knew that one of the best means of 
developing and binding together the provinces of the empire, was 
the construction of substantial and secure roads, —he proposed that 
the highways to Vera Cruz, Acapulco, Meztitlan de la Sierra, and 
Toluca, should be reconstructed in the most enduring manner. 
But the Junta Superior de Hacienda opposed the measure, and the 
count was obliged to expend, from his own purse, the requisite 
sums for the most important repairs. He established weekly posts 
between the capitals of the Intendencies ; — regulated and restrict- 
ed the cutting of timber in the adjacent mountains ; — established 
a professorship of anatomy in the Hospital de Naturales ; destroyed 
the provincial militia system and formed regular corps out of the 
best veterans found in the ranks. Knowing the difficulty with 
which the poor or uninfluential reached the ear of their Mexican 
governors, he placed a locked case in one of the halls of his palace 
into which all persons were at liberty to throw their memorials 
designed for the viceroy’s scrutiny. It was, in reality, a secret 
mode of espionage, but it brought to the count’s knowledge many 
an important fact which he would never have learned through the 
ordinary channels of the court. Without this secret chest, whose 
key was never out of his possession, Revilla-Gigedo, with all his 
personal industry, might never have comprehended the actual con- 
dition of Mexico, or, have adopted the numerous measures for its 
improvement which distinguished his reign. 

Besides this provident measure for the internal safety and pro- 


gressive comfort of New Spain, the count directed his attention to 
34 


262 HIS ADVICE AS TO CALIFORNIA. 


the western coast of America, upon which, he believed, the future 
interests of Spain would materially rely. The settlement of the 
Californias had engaged the attention of many preceding viceroys, — 
as we have already related, and their coasts had been explored and 
missionary settlements made wherever the indentures of the sea 
shore indicated the utility of such enterprises. But the count fore- 
saw that the day would come when the commercial enterprises of 
European nations, and, especially of the English, would render this 
portion of the Mexican realm an invaluable acquisition. Accord- 
ingly he despatched an expedition to the Californias to secure the 
possessions of Spain in that quarter; and has left, for posterity, an 
invaluable summary or recopilacion of all the enterprises of dis- 
covery made by the Spaniards in that portion of the west coast of 
America. ‘This document,— more useful to the antiquarian than 
the politician, now that the boundaries between the possessions of 
Mexico, England and the United States have been definitely settled 
by treaties, — may be found in the third volume of ‘‘ Los Tres 
Siglos de Mejico,’’ a work which was commenced by the Jesuit 
Father Cavo, and continued to the year 1821, by Don Carlos 
Maria Bustamante. Revilla-Gigedo recommended the Spanish 
court to avoid all useless parade or expense, but resolutely to 
prevent the approach of the English or of any other foreign power 
to their possessions in California, and to occupy, promptly, the 
port of Bodega, and even the shores of the Columbia river, if it 
was deemed necessary. He advised the minister, moreover, to 
fortify these two points; to garrison strongly San Francisco, Mon- 
terey, San Diego and Loreto; to change the department of San 
Blas to Acapulco; and to guard the fondos piadosos of the missions, 
as well as the salt works of Zapotillo, by which the treasury would 
be partly relieved of the ecclesiastical expenses of California, while | 
the needful marine force was suitably supported. These safe- 
guards were believed by the viceroy sufficient to confine the 
enterprising English to the regions in which they might trafhe for 
peltries without being tempted into the dominions of Spain, at the 
same time that they served as safeguards against all illicit or con- 
traband commerce. ! 

We have, thus endeavored to describe rather than to narrate 
historically, the principal events that occurred in the reign of the 


1 During the administration of the second Count Revilla-Gigedo the sum of one 
hundred and nine millions, seven hundred and four thousand, four hundred and 
seventeen dollars, was coined in gold and silver in Mexico. 


ANECDOTES OF HIS POLICE REGULATIONS. 263 


second Count Revilla-Gigedo, all of which have characterized him 
as a just, liberal and far-seeing ruler. In the account of his 
father’s reign, we have already noticed some of this viceroy’s 
meritorious qualities ; but we shall now break the ordinary tenor 
of these brief annals by inserting a few anecdotes which are still 
traditionally current in the country whose administration he so 
honestly conducted. 

The Conde was accustomed to make nightly rounds in the city, 
in order to assure himself that its regulations for quiet and security 
were carried into effect. On one occasion, it is related, that in pass- 
ing through a street which he had ordered to be paved, he suddenly 
stopped and despatched a messenger to the director of the work, 
requiring his instant presence. The usual phrase with which he 
wound up such commands was ‘‘lo espero aqui,’’ — *‘ I await him 
here,” —which had the effect of producing an extraordinary degree 
of celerity in those who received the command. On this occasion 
the officer, who was enjoying his midnight repose, sprang from his 
bed on receiving the startling summons, and rushed, half dressed, 
to learn the purport of what he presumed to be an important busi- 
ness. He found the viceroy standing stiff and composed on the 
side walk. When the panting officer had paid his obeisance to 
his master : —‘‘ I regret to have disturbed you, Sefior,”’ said the 
latter, ‘in order to call your attention to the state of your pave- 
ment. You will observe that this flag stone is not perfectly even,”’ 
touching with his toe one which rose about half an inch above the 
rest of the side walk, ‘‘I had the misfortune to strike my foot 
against it this evening, and I fear that some others may be as 
unlucky as myself, unless the fault be immediately remedied. You 
will attend to it, sir, and report to me to-morrow morning!”? With 
these words he continued his round, leaving the officer in a state 
of stupefaction ; but it is asserted that the pavements of Mexico for 
the rest of his excellency’s government were unexceptionable. 

Another anecdote, of this kind, places his peculiarity of temper 
in a still stronger light. In perambulating the city one pleasant 
evening about sunset, he found that the street in which he was 
walking terminated abruptly against a mass of wretched tenements, 
apparently the lurking places of vice and beggary. He inquired 
how it happened that the highway was carried no farther, or why 
these hovels were allowed to exist; but the only information he 
could gain was that such had always been the case, and that none 
of the authorities considered themselves bound to remedy the evil. 
Revilla-Gigedo sent immediately to the corregidor : — ‘tell him 


264 THE STREET OF REVILLA-GIGEDO. 


that I await him here,’ he concluded, in a tone that had the effect 
of bringing that functionary at once to the spot, and he received 
orders to open, without delay, a broad and straight avenue through 
the quarter as far as the barrier of the city. It must be finished, 
was the imperious command, — that very night, so as to allow 
the viceroy to drive through it on his way to mass the next morn- 
ing. With this the count turned on his heel, and the corregidor 
was left to reflect upon his disagreeable predicament. 

The fear of losing his office, or perhaps worse consequences, 
stimulated his energy. No time was to be wasted. All his subor- 
dinate officers were instantly summoned, and laborers were col- 
lected from allparts of the city. The very buildings that were to 
be removed sent forth crowds of leperos willing i afew reales to 
aid in destroying the walls which had once harbored them. A 
hundred torches shed their radiance over the scene. All night 
long the shouts of the workmen, the noise of pick-axe and crow- 
bar, the crash of falling roofs, and the rumbling of carts, kept the 
city in a fever of excitement. Precisely at sunrise the state car- 
riage, with the viceroy, his family and suite, left the palace, and 
rattled over the pavements in the direction from which the noise 
had proceeded. At length the new street opened before them. 
a thousand workmen, in double file, fell back on either side 
and made the air resound with vivas, as they passed. Through 
clouds of dust and dirt,—over the unpaved earth, strewn with 
fragments of stone and plaster, —the coach and train swept on- 
ward, till at the junction of the new street with the road_ leading 
to the suburbs, the corregidor, hat in hand, with a smile of con- 
scious desert, stepped forward to receive his excellency, and to 
listen to the commendation bestowed on the prompt and skilful 
execution of his commands ! 

Should any one doubt the truth of this story, let him be aware 
that the Calle de Revilla-Gigedo still remains in Mexico to attest 
its verity. 

These anecdotes impart some idea of the authority exercised by 
the viceroys, which was certainly far more arbitrary and personal 
than that of their sovereign in his Spanish dominions. | 

There is another adventure told to display the excellence of Re- 
villa-Gigedo’s police, in which the count figures rather melodra- 
matically. It seems that among the creole nobles, who, with the 
high officers of government, made up the viceroy’s court, there 
was a certain marques, whom fortune had endowed with great estates - 
and two remarkably pretty daughters, and it was doubted by some 


ARREST OF FUGITIVE LOVERS. 265 


whether the care of his cash or his heiresses gave him most 
anxiety. ‘The eldest, who bore her father’s title, was celebrated 
for beauty of an uncommon kind in those regions. She had blue 
eyes, brilliant complexion, and golden hair, and was every where 
known as the fair haired marquesa. Her sister who, on the con- 
trary, was very dark, with eyes like the gazelle and raven hair, 
was called the pretty brunette. But, different as they were in looks 
and perhaps in character, there was one trait in which they per- 
fectly agreed, for they were remarkable coquettes! It is unknown 
how many offers of the wealthiest grandees and most gallant cava- 
liers about court they had refused ; and the poor marques, who was 
by no means a domestic tyrant and desired to govern his family 
only by kindness, was quite worn out in persuading them to know 
there own minds. One night he was roused from his sleep by a 
message from the viceroy, who awaited him in the palace. Not 
for his best estate would the loyal marques have kept the represen- 
tative of his sovereign waiting a moment longer than necessary. 
Wondering what reason of state could require his presence at that 
unusual hour, he dressed himself hastily, and hurried to the palace. 
The viceroy was in his cabinet, surrounded by several of his house- 
hold, and all in a state of painful curiosity. ‘‘ Marques, ”’ said the 
viceroy, as soon as the nobleman entered, ‘‘ my lieutenant of police 
here, complains that you did not take proper care to secure the 
doors of your mansion last evening.”? ‘I assure your highness,” 
replied the marques in great surprise, ‘‘that my steward locked 
both the great gate and the outer door, according to the invariable 
custom of my mansion, before retiring for the night.”? ‘‘ But have 
you not a postern opening into the next street?” returned the 
count, “‘and are you equally heedful in regard to it? But, in 
short,”’ he continued, “you must know, that this watchful lieu- 
tenant of mine has saved you to-night from robbery.”? ‘‘ Robbery! 
your excellency, is it possible? ”’ ejaculated the marques, startled 
for a moment out of his habitual composure. ‘‘ Yes, —and of the 
worst kind”’ replied the viceroy, ‘‘the felons were in the act of 
carrying off your most exquisite treasures which are now restored 
to you.”” At these words, a door at the side of the cabinet flew 
open, and the astonished marques beheld his two daughters, dressed 
for travelling, and locked in each other’s arms. ‘They seemed over- 
whelmed with confusion; the fair hair all dishevelled and the 
black eyes drowned in tears. ‘‘And these are the robbers, ” 
added the viceroy pointing to a door on the opposite side, which 
also flew open. The marques turned mechanically, and saw two 


266 PUNISHES THE CULPRITS. 


of the gayest, handsomest, and most dissipated youths of the court, _ 
whom he recollected as occasional visitors at his house. They — 
appeared no less confused, and, with their embarrassment, there 
was an evident mixture of alarm. The truth now began to break — 
on the mind of the nobleman. ‘‘ You see, marques,”’ said the 
count, “‘that but for the vigilance of my police, you would have 
had the honor of being father-in-law to two of the greatest scamps 
in my viceroyalty. See what a dilemma your carelessness has 
brought me into, my dear sir! I am obliged to wound the feelings 
of two of the most lovely ladies in my court, to save them from the 
machinations of scoundrels unworthy of their charms, and I fear 
they will never forgive me! Farewell, sefior marques; take my 
advice, and brick up your postern. Calderon! was a wise man, 
and he tells us that a house with two doors is hard to keep. 
As for these young scape-graces, they sail in the next galeon, for 
Manilla, where they can exercise their fascinating powers on the 
chinas and mulatas of the Philipines ! ”’ 


1 One of Calderon’s comedies is named ‘ Casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar.” 
See Lady’s Magazine for 1844. 


CHAPTER YS I. 
1794 — 1808. 


BRANCIFORTE VICEROY — HIS GRASPING AND AVARICIOUS CHAR=- 
ACTER — CORRUPTION TOLERATED.— PERSECUTION OF FRENCH- 
MEN —ENCAMPMENTS. — BRANCIFORTE’S CHARACTER. — AZAN- 


ZA VICEROY. —EFFECT OF EUROPEAN WARS ON COLONIAL 
TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. — THREATENED REVOLT. — MAR- 
QUINA VICEROY — REVOLT IN JALISCO. — ITURRIGARAY VICE- 
ROY. — GODOY’S CORRUPTION— WAR. — DEFENCES AGAINST THE 
UNITED STATES — MIRANDA — HUMBOLDT. — MEXICO TAXED 
FOR. EUROPEAN WARS — FERDINAND VII. — NAPOLEON IN SPAIN 
— KING JOSEPH BONAPARTE. — ITURRIGARAY ARRESTED. — 


GARIBAY VICEROY. 


THe Marques DE BRANCIFORTE, 
LIII. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1794 — 1798. 


Tur Marques Branciforte, who reached Mexico on the 11th of 
July, 1794, contrasts unfavorably, in history, with his illustrious 
predecessor Revilla-Gigedo. Partaking of the avaricious qualities 
of this personage’s father, he seems to have possessed but few of 
his virtues, and probably accepted the viceroyalty of New Spain 
with no purpose but that of plunder. 

Scarcely had he begun to reign, when his rapacity was signally 
exhibited. It is said that his first essay in extortion, was the sale 
of the swb-delegation of Villa-Alta to a certain Don Francisco Ruiz 
de Conejares, for the sum of forty thousand dollars, and the 
bestowal of the office of apoderado on the Count de Contramina, 
the offices of whose subordinates were bought and sold in the po- 
litical market like ordinary merchandise. 

At this epoch the warlike hostility to France was excessive, and 
orders had been received to exercise the strictest vigilance over the 
subjects of that nation who resided in Mexico. Their number, 
however, was small, for Spanish America was almost as closely 


268 PERSECUTION OF FRENCHMEN — ENCAMPMENTS. 


sealed as China against the entrance of strangers. Nevertheless 


Branciforte encouraged a most disgraceful persecution against these _ 


unfortunate persons, by arresting them on the slightest pretexts, 
throwing them into prison, and seizing their possessions. He 
found, in his assessor general, Don Pedro Jacinto Valenzuela, and 
in his criminal prosecutor, Francisco Xavier de Borbon, fitting 
instruments to carry out his inexorable determinations. Upon one 
occasion he even demanded of the Sala de Audiencia that certain 
Frenchmen, after execution, should have their tongues impaled 
upon iron spikes at the city gates, because they had spoken slight- 
ingly of the virtue of the queen Maria Louisa! Fortunately, 
however, for the wretched culprits, the Sala was composed of 
virtuous magistrates who refused to sanction the cruel demand, and 
the victims were alone despoiled of their valuable property. These 
acts, it may well be supposed, covered the name of Branciforte 
with infamy even in Mexico. . 
In 1796, on the 7th of October, war was declared by Spain 
against England, in consequence of which the viceroy immediately 
distributed the colonial army, consisting of not less than eight 
thousand men, in Orizaba, Cordova, Jalapa, and Perote; and, in 
the beginning of the following year, he left the capital to command 
the forces from his headquarters near the eastern coast. This 
circumstance enabled him to leave, with an air of triumph, a city 
in which he was profoundly hated. ‘The people manifested their 
contempt of so despicable an extortioner and flatterer of royalty, 
not only by words, but by caricatures. When the sovereign sent 
him the order of the golden fleece, they depicted Branciforte with 
a collar of the noble order, but in lieu of the lamb, which terminates 
the insignia, they placed the figure of a cat! At his departure, 
the civil and financial government of the capital was entrusted to 
the regency of the auwdiencia, while its military affairs were con- 
ducted by the Brigadier Davalos. In Orizaba the conduct of 
Branciforte was that of an absolute monarch. All his troops were 
placed under the best discipline, but none of them were permitted 
to descend to Vera Cruz; yet, scarcely had he been established in 
this new military command, when it was known that Don Miguel 
José de Azanza was named as his viceroyal successor. Never- 
theless Branciforte continued in control, with the same domineering 
demeanor, as in the first days of his government, relying for justi- 
~ fication and defence in Spain upon the support of his relative, the 
Prince of Peace. In Orizaba he was surrounded by flatterers and 
his court was a scene of disgraceful orgies; yet the day of his fall 


BRANCIFORTE’S CHARACTER—AZANZA VICEROY. 269 


was at hand. The ship Monarch anchored at Vera Cruz, on the 
17th of May, 1798, and, on the 31st of the same month, Azanza, 
the new viceroy who reached America in her, received the vice- 
royal baton from Branciforte. This supercilious peculator departed 
from New Spain with five millions of dollars, a large portion of 
which was his private property, in the vessel that had brought his 
successor, and arrived at Ferol, after a narrow escape from the 
English in the waters of Cadiz. But he returned to Spain loaded 
with wealth and curses, for never had the Mexicans complained so 
bitterly against any Spaniard who was commissioned to rule them. 
The respectable and wealthy inhabitants of the colony were loudest 
in their denunciations of an ‘‘ Italian adventurer,’’? who enriched 
himself at the expense of their unfortunate country, nor was his 
conduct less hateful because he had been the immediate successor 
of so just and upright a viceroy as Revilla-Gigedo. 

The character of Branciforte was keen and hypocritical. He 
tried, at times, but vainly, to conceal his avarice, while his pre- 
tended love for the ‘‘ Virgin of Guadalupe ” and for the royal 
family, was incessantly reiterated in familiar conversation. Every 
Saturday during his government, and on the twelfth of every month, 
he made pious pilgrimages to the sanctuary of the Mexican pro- 
tectress. He placed a large image of the virgin on the balcony of 
the palace, and ordered a salute to be fired at daybreak in honor 
of the saint on the twelfth of every December. With these cheap 

ceremonials, however, he satisfied his hypocritical piety and absorb- 
_ ing avarice, but he never bestowed a farthing upon the collegiate 
church of the Virgin. Whenever he spoke in his court of the sov- 
ereign of Spain it was with an humble mien, a reverential voice, 
and all the external manifestations of subserviency for the royal per- 
sonages who conferred such unmerited honors upon him. Such is 
the picture which has been left by Mexican annalists of one of their 
worst rulers. 


Don Micevet Jost DE AZANZA, 


LIV. Viceroy or New Sparyn. — 1798— 1800. 


Azanza, who, as we have related, assumed the viceroyalty in 
May, 1798, was exceedingly well received in Mexico. His 
worthy character was already known to the people, and almost any 
new viceroy would have been hailed as a deliverer from the odious 
administration of Branciforte. Azanza was urbane towards all 


classes, and his discreet conversation, at once, secured the respect 
35 


270 EFFECT OF EUROPEAN WARS ON COLONIAL TRADE - 


and confidence of the colonists. Besides this, the early measures 
of his administration were exceedingly wise. He dissolved the 
various military encampments, established and maintained at 
enormous cost, by his predecessor in the neighborhood of the 
eastern coasts. This heavy charge on the treasury was dis- 
tasteful to the people, while so large an assemblage of colonial 
troops necessarily withdrew multitudes from agricultural and com- 
mercial pursuits, and greatly interfered with the business of New 
Spain. Anxious, however, to protect the important post of Vera 
Cruz, the viceroy formed a less numerous encampment in its 
neighborhood ; but the greater portion of its offcers and men 
perished in that unhealthy climate. 

The war with England was not altogether disadvantageous to 
Mexico, for although the royal order of the 18th of November, 
1797, was repeated on the 20th of April, 1799, by which a com- 
merce in neutral vessels had been permitted with the colony’s ports, 
yet, as the seas were filled with enemy’s cruisers, the Spanish 
trade in national vessels was narrowed chiefly to exports from the 
mother country. This course of commerce resulted in retaining 
the specie of Mexico within her territory, for the precious metals 
had hitherto been the principal article of export to Spain in return 
for merchandise despatched from Cadiz. The internal trade 
of Mexico was, accordingly, fostered and beneficially sustained by 
the continuance of its large annual metallic products within the 
viceroyalty until peace permitted their safe transmission abroad. 
The beneficial retention of silver and gold in the country was not 
only manifested in the activity of domestic trade, but in the im- 
provement of its towns and cities, and in the encouragement of 
manufactures of silk, cotton and wool. - In Oaxaca, Guadalaxara, 
Valladolid, Puebla, Cuautitlan, San Juan Teotihuacan, Zempoala, 
Metepec, Ixtlahuaca, Tulancingo, the number of looms increased 
rapidly between 1796 and 1800. In Oaxaca thirty were added ; in 
San Juan Teotihuacan thirty-three ; in Queretaro, three thousand 
four hundred persons were employed ; while, in the town of Cade- 
reita, there existed more than two hundred fie, giving employ- 
ment to more than five hundred individuals. 

In attending wisely and justly to the civil administration of New 


Spain, and in fostering the internal trade and industry, Azanza | 


bestirred himself whilst the war continued. There were but few 
actions between the combatants, but as the contest between the — 
nations sealed the ports in a great degree, Mexico was made 
chiefly dependent on herself for the first time since her national 


AND MANUFACTURES — THREATENED REVOLT. OT 


existence. ‘The politics and intrigues of the old world thus ac- 
quainted the colony with her resources and taught her the value of 
independence. 

Azanza’s administration was, for a while, disturbed by a threat- 
ened outbreak among the lower classes, whose chief conspirators 
assembled in an obscure house in the capital, and designed, at a 
suitable moment, rising in great numbers and murdering, without 
discrimination, all the wealthiest or most distinguished Spaniards. 
This treasonable project was discovered to the viceroy, who went 
in person, with a guard, to the quarters of the leaguers, and ar- 
rested them on the spot. They were speedily brought to trial; but 
the cause hung in the courts until after the departure of Azanza, 
when powerful and touching intercessions were made with his suc- 
cessor to save the lives of the culprits. The project of a pardon 
was maturely considered by the proper authorities, and it was re- 
solved not to execute the guilty chiefs, inasmuch as it was believed 
that their appearance upon a scaffold would be the signal for a 
general revolt of the people against the dominion of the parent 
country. ‘The sounds of the approaching storm were already heard 
in the distance, and justice yielded to policy. 

Azanza, with all his excellent qualities as a Governor in Ame- 
rica, did not give satisfaction to the court at home. ‘There is no 
doubt of the value of his administration in Mexico, and it is, there- 
fore, difficult to account for his loss of favor, except upon the 
ground of intrigue and corruption which were rife in Madrid. 
The reign of Charles IV. and the administration of the Prince of 
Peace, are celebrated in history as the least respectable in modern 
Spanish annals. Whilst the royal favorite controled the king’s 
councils, favoritism and intrigue ruled the day. Among other le- 
gends of the time, it is asserted by Bustamante, in his continuation 
of Cavo’s ‘‘ Tres Siglos de Mejico,”’ that the Mexican viceroyalty 
was almost put up at auction in Madrid, and offered for eighty 
thousand dollars to the secretary Bonilla. In consequence of this 
personage’s inability to procure the requisite sum, it was conferred, 
through another bargain and sale, upon Don Felix Berenguer de 
Marquina, an obscure officer, who was unknown to the king either 
personally or as a meritorious servant of the crown and people. 

The Mexican author to whom we have just referred, charac- 
terizes Azanza as the wisest, most politic and amiable viceroy, 
ever sent by Spain to rule over his beautiful country. 1 


1 Cavo y Bustamante: Tres Siglos de Mejico, tomo 39, 190. 


PS ps MARQUINA VICEROY — REVOLT IN. JALISCO. 


Don Fe.ix BeRENGUER DE Marquina, 
LY. Viceroy or New Spain. 
1800 — 1802, 
Marquina took charge of the viceroyalty on the 30th of April, 


1800, after a sudden and mysterious arrival in New Spain, having — 
passed through the enemy’s squadron and been taken prisoner. It 
was inconceivable to the Mexicans why the vice-admiral of Ja- 
maica deemed it proper to release a Spanish officer who came to 
America on a warlike mission; yet it is now known that in Novem- 
ber, of 1800, the king ordered forty thousand dollars to be paid the 
viceroy to reimburse the extraordinary expenses of his voyage! 

The government of this personage was not remarkable in the 
development of the colony. The war with England still con- 
tinued, but it was of a mild character, and vessels constantly 
passed between the belligerants with flags of truce, through whose 
intervention the Mexicans were permitted to purchase in Jamaica, 
the paper, quicksilver, and European stuffs, which the British 
crusiers had captured from Spanish ships in the Gulf. . 

In 1801, an Indian named Mariano, of Tepic in Jalisco, son of 
the governor of the village of Tlascala in that department, at 
tempted to excite a revolution among the people of his class, by 
means of an anonymous circular which proclaimed him king 
Measures were immediately taken to suppress this outbreak, anc 
numbers of the natives were apprehended and carried to Guadala 
jara. ‘The fears of Marquina were greatly excited by this paltry 
rebellion, which he imagined, or feigned to believe, a wide sprea¢ 
conspiracy excited by the North Americans and designed t 
overthrow the Spanish power. ‘The viceroy, accordingly, detailed 
his services in exaggerated terms to the home government, and it 
is probably owing to the eulogium passed by him upon the conduct — 
of Abascal, president of Guadalaxara, that this personage was made 
viceroy of Buenos Ayres, and afterwards honored with the govern 
ment of Peru and created Marques de la Concordia. 

A definitive treaty of peace was concluded between the principal 
European and American belligerants in 1802, and soon after, Mar- 
quina, who was offended by some slights received from the Spanish 
ministry, resigned an office for the performance of whose manifold 
duties and intricate labors he manifested no ability save that of a 
good disposition. He was probably better fitted to govern a vil- 
lage of fifty inhabitants than the vast’ and important empire of 
New Spain. 


A 


ITURRIGARAY VICEROY — GODOY’S CORRUPTION — WAR. 273 


Don José ITuRRIGARAY, 
LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE SPANISH ARMY, 


LVI. Viceroy or New Spain. — 1803—1808. 


On the morning of the 4th of January, 1803, Don José Iturri- 
_ garay reached Guadalupe near Mexico, where he received the staff 
of office from his predecessor and was welcomed by the Audiencia, 
tribunals, and nobility of the capital. 

The revolution in the British provinces of North America had 
been successful, and they had consolidated themselves into na- 
tionality under the title of United States. France followed in the 
footsteps of liberty, and, overthrowing the rotten throne of the 
Bourbons, was the first European state to give an impulse to free- 
dom in the old world. ‘The whole western part of that continent 
was more or less agitated by the throes of the moral and political 
volcano whose fiery eruption was soon to cover Europe with de- 
struction. In the midst of this epoch of convulsive change, Spain 
alone exhibited the aspect of passive insignificance, for the king, 
queen, and Prince of Peace, still conducted the government of that 
great nation, and their corrupt rule has become a proverb of imbe- 
cility and contempt. Godoy, the misnamed ‘‘ Prince of Peace, ” 
was the virtual ruler of the nation. His administration was, at 
once, selfish, depraved and silly. The favorite of the king, and 
the alleged paramour of the queen, he controled both whenever it 
was necessary, while the colonies, as well as the parent state, 
naturally experienced all the evil consequences of his debauched 
government. Bad as had been the management of affairs in 
America during the reign of the long series of viceroys who 
commanded on our continent, it became even worse whilst Godoy 
swayed Charles IV. through the influence of his dissolute queen. 
Most of the serious and exciting annoyances which afterwards 
festered and broke out in the Mexican revolution, owe their origin 
to this epoch of Spanish misrule. 

_ Iturrigaray was exceedingly well received in Mexico, where his 
reputation as an eminent servant of the crown preceded him. 
Shortly after his arrival he undertook a journey to the interior, in 
order to examine personally into the condition of the mining 
districts ; and, after his return to the capital, he devoted himself to 
the ordinary routine of colonial administration until it became 
necessary, in consequence of the breaking out of the war, between 
Spain and England, to adopt measures for the protection of his 
viceroyalty. In consequence of this rupture Iturrigaray received 


274 DEFENCES AGAINST U. STATES —MIRANDA—HUMBOLDT. 


orders from the court to put the country in a state of complete 
defence, and accordingly, he gathered; in haste the troops of 
Mexico, Puebla, Perote, Jalapa and Vera Cruz, and, descending 
several times to the latter place, personally inspected all the en- 
campments and garrisons along the route. Besides this, he made 
a rapid military reconnoissance of the country along the coast and | 
the chief highways to the interior. The road from Vera Cruz to 
Mexico was constructed in the best manner under his orders, and 
the celebrated bridge called El Puente del rey, now known as i 
Puente Nacional, was finally completed. 

These preparations were designed not only to guard New Spain 
from the invasions of the English, but also, from a dreaded attack 
by the people of the United States. This fear seems to have been 
fostered by the Marques de Casa Irujo who was Spanish envoy in 
Washington at this epoch, and informed the government that the 
menaced expedition against Mexico, would throw twenty thousand 
men upon her shores. Nor was the attention of Iturrigaray divert- 
ed from the enterprise which was projected by Don Francisco 
Miranda to secure the independence of Caraccas ; and although the 
scheme failed, it appears to have aroused the whole of Spanish 
America to assert and maintain its rights. 

It was during the government of this viceroy, that the celebrated 
Baron Humboldt, visited Mexico, — by permission of the patriotic 
minister D’Urquijo, — authorized, by the home government, to 
examine its dominions and their archives, and to receive from 
the colonial authorities all the information they possessed in regard 
to America. He was the first writer who developed the resources 
or described the condition of the Spanish portion of our continent, 
which, until that time, had been studiously veiled from the exami- 
nation of all strangers who were likely to reveal their knowledge to 
the world. 

In 1806, the news of the destruction of the combined fleets in 
the waters of Cadiz became known in Mexico, and the resident 
Spaniards, exhibiting a lively sympathy with the mother country in 
this sad affliction, collected upwards of thirty thousand dollars for 
the widows of their brave companions who had fallen in action. 
Meanwhile, the war in Europe was not only destroying the sub- 
jects of the desperate belligerants, but was rapidly consuming their 
national substance, In this state of things America was called 
upon to contribute for the maintenance of a bloody struggle in 
which she had no interest save that of loyal dependence. ‘Taxes, 
duties, and exactions of all sorts were laid upon the Mexicans, and, 


MEXICO TAXED FOR EUROPEAN WARS —FERDINAND VII. 275 
@ 


under this dread infliction, the domestic and foreign trade languish- 
ed notwithstanding the extraordinary yield of the mines, which, in 
1805, sent upwards of twenty millions into circulation. Of all the 
royal interferences with Mexican interests and capital, none seems 
to have been more vexatiously unpopular, than the decree for the 
consolidation of the capitals of obras pias, or, charitable and pious 
revenues, which was issued by the court; and Iturrigaray, as the 
executive officer employed in this consolidation, drew upon himself 
the general odium of all the best classes in the colony. 

Charles IV. fell before the revolutionary storm in Europe, and 
signed his abdication on the 9th of August, 1808, in favor of 
his son Ferdinand VII, But the weak and irresolute monarch 
soon protested against this abdication, alleging that the act had 
been extorted from him by threats against his life; and, whilst the 
Supreme council of Spain was examining into the validity of 
Charles’s renunciation, and Ferdinand was treating his father’s pro- 
test with contempt, Napoleon, who had steadily advanced to su- 

preme power after the success of the French revolution, took 
_ prompt advantage of the dissentions in the peninsula, and, making 
himself master of it, seated his brother Joseph on the Spanish 
throne. As soon as Joseph was firmly placed in power, Ferdinand 
congratulated him upon his elevation, and ordered all his Spanish 
and colonial subjects to recognize the upstart king. But the ser- 
vility of Ferdinand to the ascending star of European power did 
not meet with obedience from the people of Mexico, who, resolv- 
ing to continue loyal to their legitimate sovereign, forthwith pro- 
claimed Ferdinand VII, throughout New Spain. The conduct of 
the colonists was secretly approved by the dissembling monarch, 
although he ratified a decree of the Council of the Indies, com- 
manding the Mexicans to obey Joseph. The natives of the Penin- 
sula, dwelling in New Spain, were nearly all opposed to the Bour- 
bons and faithful to the French propagandists, whilst the creoles, 
or American natives denounced the adherents of Joseph and 
burned the proclamation which declared him to be their king. 
The orders received at this period by Iturrigaray from Ferdinand, 
Joseph, and the Council of the Indies, were, of course, all in con- 
flict with each other; and, in order to relieve himself from the 
political dilemma in which he was placed by these mixed com- 
mands, Iturrigaray determined to summon a Junta of Notable Per- 
sons, similar to that of Seville, which was to be composed of the 
viceroy, the archbishop of Mexico and representatives from the 
army, the nobility, the principal citizens and the ayuntamiento of 


976 - ITURRIGARAY ARRESTED — GARIBAY VICEROY. 
e 


the capital. But inasmuch as this plan of concord leaned in favor 


of the people, by proposing to place the creoles of America upon 


an equality with the natives of Spain, the old hatred or jealousy 
between the races was at once aroused. ‘The Europeans, who 
composed the partisans of France, headed by Don Gabriel Yermo, 
a rich Spaniard and proprietor of some of the finest sugar estates 
in the valley of Cuernavaca, at once resolved to frustrate the vice- 
roy’s design. Arming themselves hastily, they proceeded, on the 
night of the 15th of September, 1808, to his palace, where they 
arrested Iturrigaray, and accusing him of heresy and treason, sent 
him as prisoner to Spain. This revolutionary act was openly 
countenanced by the Audiencia, the Oidores Aguirre and Bataller, 
and the body of Spanish traders. For three years, until released 
by an act of amnesty in 1811, Iturrigaray continued in close con- 
finement; and, although he was not regarded favorably by all 
classes of Mexicans, this outrage against his person by the Span- 
ish emigrants seems to have produced a partial reaction in his 
favor among the loyal natives. . 

The administration of Iturrigaray was not only defective, but 
corrupt in many executive acts, for offices were scandalously sold 
at his court, —a fact which was proved in the judicial inquiry sub- 
sequently made into his conduct. ‘The Council of the Indies, in 
1819, sentenced him to pay upwards of three hundred and eighty- 
four thousand dollars, in consequence of the maladministration 
that was charged and maintained against him. 

Fietp Marsuat Don PrEprRo GarIBay, 
LVII. Viceroy or New Spain. — 1808. 

This chief was more than eighty years of age when honored 
with the viceroyalty of New Spain. He had passed the greater 
portion of his life in Mexico, and rose from the humble grade of 
lieutenant of provincial militia to the highest post in the colony. 
He was familiar with the habits and feelings of the people; was 
generally esteemed for the moderation with which he conducted 
himself in office, and was altogether the most endurable viceroy 
who could have been imposed upon the Mexicans at that revolu- 
tionary period. 

During the government of the preceding viceroy the troubles 
which began, as we have seen, in the old world, had extended to 


the new, and we shall therefore group the history of the war that 
resulted in Mexican independence, under the titles of the last vice- 


roys who were empowered by Peninsular authorities to stay, if they 
could not entirely control, the progress of American liberty. 


BOO) Kener: 


- 


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: - f ie = v4 r 
fae en Le - awe Lehete? ery ee a ie =e 
ee ee a eras) eae, Co RE ened et a 6 ans ae ang 


INCLUSION OF THE VICEROYAL GOVERNMENT; 
‘s HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION AND 

_——s WAR «OF -INDEPENDENCE; ye 
_ MEXICO UNDER THE EMPIRE OF ITURBIDE i 
| “AND UNDER THE REPUBLIC; 


( 
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Se : = eZ 4% 
Cpa ee 


1809— 1850. . 


6-86 


BOOK III. 


CHAPTER LI. 
1809 — 1810. 


LIANZA VICEROY. — AUDIENCIA. — VENEGAS VICEROY. — TRUE 
SOURCES OF THE REVOLUTION. —CREOLES LOYAL TO FERDI- 
NAND.— SPANIARDS IN FAVOR OF KING JOSEPH. — MEXICAN 
SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR SPAIN. — SECRET UNION IN MEXICO 
AGAINST SPANIARDS. — HIDALGO — ALLENDE — FIRST OUT- 
BREAK.— GUANAJUATO SACKED—LAS CRUCES.—MEXICO MEN- 
ACED. — INDIAN BRAVERY AT ACULCO. — MARFIL — MASSACRE 
AT GUANAJUATO — CALLEJA. — INSURGENTS DEFEATED — EXE- 
CUTION OF HIDALGO. 


Tue ArcHBIsHoP Francisco XAVIER DE LiANnza, 
: LVIII. Vicrroy or New Spain. 
| ‘HE AupIENcIA OF Mexico, anp VENEGAS, LIX. Viceroy. 
1809 — 1810. 


TuHE pictures presented in the introductory chapter to the vice- 
royal history and in the subsequent detailed narrative of that epoch, 
will suffice, we presume, to convince our readers that they need not 
penetrate deeply for the true causes of misery and misrule in 
Spanish America. The decadence of Spain as well as the present 
unhappiness of nearly all her ancient colonies may be fairly attributed 
to the same source of national ruin — bad, unnatural government. 
A distinguished statesman of our country has remarked that ‘the 
European alliance of emperors and kings assumed, as the founda- 
tion of human society, the doctrine of unalienable allegiance, whilst 
our doctrine was founded on the principle of unalienable right.’ ! 
This mistaken European view, or rather assumption of royal pre- 


1 John Quincy Adams’s letter to Mr. Anderson, minister to Columbia, May 27, 
1823. See President’s message on the Panama Congress, March, 1823. 


280 MEXICAN SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR SPAIN. 


rogative and correlative human duties, was the baleful origin of 
colonial misrule. ‘The house of Austria did not govern Spain as 


wisely as its predecessors. ‘The Spain that Philip I. received and - 


the Spain of those who followed him, present a sad contrast. As 
the conquest of America had not been conceived, although it was 
declared to be, in a beneficent spirit, the sovereigns continued the 
system of plunder with which it was begun. Its results are 
known. The Americans were their subjects, bound to them by 
‘unalienable allegiance ;’’ vassals, serfs creatures, whose hu- 
man rights, in effect, were nothing when compared to the mon- 
arch’s will. ‘This doctrine at once converted the southern portions 
of our continent into a soulless machine, which the king had a right 
to use as he pleased, and especially, as he deemed most beneficial 
for his domestic realm. The consequence was, that, in concur- 
rence with the Council of the Indies, he established, as we have 
seen, an entirely artificial system, which contradicted nature, and 
utterly thwarted both physical and intellectual development. 

The Indians and creoles of Mexico and Peru, ignorant and 
stupid as they were believed to be by Spain, had, nevertheless, 
sense enough to understand and feel the wretchedness of their 
condition. They cherished in their hearts an intense hatred for 
their foreign masters. ‘There was no positive or merely natural 
enmity of races in this, but rather a suppressed desire to avenge 
their wrongs. 7 

When the French seized Spain, the colonies in America were, 
for a period, forced to rely upon themselves for temporary govern- 
ment. They did not, at once, desire to adopt republican institu- 
tions, but rather adhered to monarchy, provided they could free 
themselves from bad rulers and vicious laws. This especially was 
the case in Mexico. Her war against the mother country origina- 
ted in a loyal desire to be completely independent of France. 
The news of the departure of Ferdinand VII. for Bayonne, and the 
alleged perfidy of Napoleon in that city, excited an enthusiasm 
among the Mexicans for the legitimate king, and created a mortal 
hatred against the conqueror of Europe. All classes of original 
Mexican society seem to have been united in these sentiments. 
Subscriptions were freely opened and in a few months, seven 
millions were collected to aid their Peninsular friends who were 
fighting for religion, king, and nationality. The idea did not 
strike any Mexican that it was a proper time to free his native land 
entirely from colonial thraldom.1 But after a short time, the 


1 Zavala, Historia, vol. 1, p. 38. 


SECRET UNION IN MEXICO AGAINST SPANIARDS. 281 


people began to reflect. The prestige of Spanish power, to which 
we have alluded heretofore, was destroyed. A French king sat 
upon the Spanish throne. The wand of the enchanter, with which 
he had spell-bound America across the wide Atlantic, was broken 
forever. ‘The treasured memory of oppression, conquest, bad 
government and misery, was suddenly refreshed, and it is not 
surprising to find that when the popular rising finally took place, it 
manifested its bitterness in an universal outcry against the Spaniards. 

After the occurrences at Bayonne, emissaries from king Joseph 
Bonaparte spread themselves over the continent to prepare the 
people for the ratification and permanence of the French govern- 
ment. ‘These political propagandists were charged, as we have 
stated with orders from Ferdinand VII. and the Council of the 
Indies, to transfer the allegiance of America to France.! It may 
be imagined that this would have gratified the masses in America, 
who perhaps, had heard that the French were the unquestionable 
patrons of “liberty and equality.” But, the exact reverse was the 
case among the creoles, whilst the Spaniards in America, received 
the emissaries with welcome, and bowed down submissively to the 
orders they brought. Blinded for centuries to all ideas of govern- 
ment save those of regal character, the Mexicans had no notion of 
rule or ruler except their traditionary Spanish king. They clung 
to him, therefore, with confidence, for they felt the necessity of 
some paramount authority, as political self control was, as yet, an 
utter impossibility. 

A secret union among leading men was, therefore, formed in 
1810, which contemplated a general rising throughout the pro- 
vinces, but the plot was detected at the moment when it was ripe 
for development. This conspiracy was based upon a desire to 
overthrow the Spaniards. ‘They felt,’? says Mr. Ward, “that 
the question was not now one between themselves as subjects, 
but between themselves and their fellow subjects, the European 
Spaniards, as to which should possess the right of representing the 
absent king,” as guardians and preservers of the rights of Ferdi- 
nand. The Europeans claimed this privilege exclusively, with 
customary insolence. ‘‘The Ayuntamiento of Mexico was told by 
the Audiencia that it possessed no authority except over the leperos”’ 
—or mob of the capital; and it was a favorite maxim of the oidor 
Battaller that ‘while a Manchego mule or a Castilian cobler re- 
mained in the Peninsula, he had a right to govern. ”® 


* Robinson’s Hist. Mex. Rev. p. 10. 
* ‘Ward’s Mexico, vol. 1, p. 127. Id. p. 157. 


989 HIDALGO — ALLENDE — FIRST OUTBREAK. 


In those times, a certain country curate, by name Miguel Hi- 
dalgo y Costilla, dwelt in the Indian village of Dolores, adjacent to 
the town of San Miguel el Grande, lying in the province of Guana- 
juanto. One of the conspirators being about to die, sent for his 
priest, and confessing the plot, revealed also the names of his ac- 
complices. The curate Hidalgo was one of the chiefs of this 
revolutionary band, and the viceroy Venegas hoping to crush the 
league in its bud, despatched orders for his arrest and imprison- 
ment, aS soon as the confession of the dead conspirator was dis- 
closed to him. Hidalgo’s colleagues were also included in this 
order, but some of the secret friends of the insurgents learned 
what was occurring at court and apprised the patriot priest of 
his imminent danger. The news first reached Don Ignacio Al- 
lende, who commanded a small body of the king’s troops in San 
Miguel, and who hastened with the disastrous tidings to his friend 
at Dolores. Concealment and flight were now equally unavailing. 
The troops of Allende were speedily won to the cause of their 
captain, while the Indians of Dolores rushed to defend their be- 
loved pastor. As they marched from their village to San Miguel 
and thence to Zelaya, the natives, armed with clubs, slings, staves 
und missiles, thronged to their ranks from every mountain and 
valley. The wretched equipment of the insurgents shows. their 
legraded condition as well as the passionate fervor with which 
they blindly rushed upon the enemies of their race. Hidalgo put 
on his military coat over the cassock, and, perhaps unwisely, threw 
himself at the head of a revolution, which rallied at the cry of 
“‘ Death to the Gachupines.” } 


The result of this onslaught was dreadful. Wherever the rebel- 


lious army passed,Spaniards and uncomplying creoles they were in- 
discriminately slaughtered, and though many of the latter were 
originally combined with the conspirators and eagerly longed for 
the emancipation of their country, they were dismayed by the 
atrocities of the wild insurgents. As the rebel chief, armed with the 
sword and cross, pressed onward, immense numbers of Indians 
flocked to his banner, so that when he left Zelaya, a fierce and un- 
disciplined mob of twenty thousand hailed him as undisputed com- 
mander. At the head of this predatory band he descended upon 
the noble city of Guanajuanto, in the heart of the wealthiest mining 
district of Mexico. The Spaniards and some of the creoles re- 


) This term has been variously interpreted; it is supposed to be an ancient In- 
dian word significant of contempt. It is applied by the natives to the European 
Spaniards or their full blooded descendants. See Robinson’s His. Rev. Mex., 15. 


Leg 
he" 
ra. 


GUANAJUATO SACKED-——LAS CRUCES. 283 


solved upon a stout resistance, shut themselves up in the city and 
refused the humane terms offered by Hidalgo upon condition of 
surrender. This rash rejection led to an immediate attack and 
victory. When the city fell, it was too late for the insurgent priest 
to stay the savage fury of his troops. The Spaniards and their 
adherents were promiscuously slaughtered by the troops, and, for 
three days the sacking of the city continued, until wearied with 
conquest, the rebels, at length, stopped the plunder of the town. 
Immense treasures, hoarded in this place for many years, were the 
fruits of this atrocious victory which terrified the Mexican authori- 
ties and convinced them that the volcanic nature of the people had 
been fully roused, and that safety existed alone in uncompromising 
resistance. 

The original rebellion was thus thrown from the hands of the 
creoles into those of the Indians. A war of races was about to 
break out; and although there were not among the insurgents more 
than a thousand muskets, yet the mere numerical force of such an 
infuriate crowd, was sufficient to dismay the staunchest. The 
viceroy Venegas, and the church, therefore, speedily combined to 
hurl their weapons against the rebels. Whilst the former issued 
proclamations or decrees, and despatched troops under the com- 
mand of Truxillo to check Hidalgo who was advancing on the 
capital, the latter declared all the rebels to be heretics, and excom- 
municated them in a body. Venegas ordered all the higher clergy 
“to represent from the pulpit, and circulate the idea privately, that 
the great object of the revolution was to destoy and subvert the holy 
Catholic religion, while he directed the subaltern ministers to sow 
discord in families by the confessional.”’?! But the arms of the 
Spanish chiefs and the anathemas of the Roman church, were un- 
equal to the task of resistance. Hidalgo was attacked by Truxillo 
at Las Cruces, about eight leagues from the capital, where the In- 
dian army overwhelmed the Spanish general and drove him back to 
Mexico, with the loss of his artillery. In this action we find it 
difficult to apportion the ferocity, with justice, between the com- 
batants, for Truxillo boasted in his despatch that he had defended 
the defile with the ‘‘ obstinacy of Leonidas,’ and had even “ fired 
upon the bearers of a flag of truce which Hidalgo sent him.’? 

The insurgents followed up their success at Las Cruces by pur- 
suing the foe until they arrived at the hacienda of Quaximalpa, 
within fifteen miles of the city of Mexico. But here a fatal distrust 
of his powers seems first to have seized the warrior priest. Vene- 


1 Robinson Memoir Mex. Rev. 19. ? Ib. p. 20. 


284 MEXICO MENACED — INDIAN BRAVERY AT ACULCO. 


gas, it is said, contrived to introduce secret emmissaries into his 
camp, who impressed Hidalgo and his officers with the belief that 
the capital was abundantly prepared for defence, and that an assault 
upon the disciplined troops of Spain, by a disordered multitude 
without fire arms, would only terminate in the rout and destruction 
of all his forces. In fact, he seems to have been panic stricken, 
and to have felt unable to control the revolutionary tempest he had 
raised. Accordingly, in an evil moment for his cause, he com- 
menced a retreat, after having remained several days in sight of 
the beautiful city of Mexico, upon which he might easily have 
swept down from the mountain like an eagle to his prey. 

It is related by the historians of these wars, that in spite of all 
Venegas’s boasted valor and assurance, he was not a little dis- 
mayed by the approach of Hidalgo. The people shared his alarm, 
and would probably have yielded at once to the insurgents, whose 
imposing forces were crowding into the valley. But in this strait 
the viceroy had recourse to the well known superstitions of the 
people, in order to allay their fears. He caused the celebrated 
image of the Virgin of Remedios to be brought from the mountain 
village, where it was generally kept in a chapel, to the cathedral, 
with great pomp and ceremony. ‘Thither he proceeded, in full 
uniform, to pay his respects to the figure, and after imploring the 
Virgin to take the government into her own hands, he terminated 
his appeal by laying his baton of command at her feet.! 

It is now that we first encounter in Mexican history the name 
of Don Felix Maria Calleja, —a name that is coupled with all that 
is shameless, bloody, and atrocious, in modern warfare. _Calleja 
was placed at the head of a well appointed creole army of ten thou- 
sand men and a train of artillery, and with these disciplined forces, 
which he had been for some time concentrating, he was ordered to 
pursue Hidalgo.? The armies met at Aculco, and the Indians, in 
their first encounter with a body of regulars, exhibited an enthusi- 
astic bravery that nearly defies belief. They were almost as com- 
pletely ignorant of the use or power of fire arms as their Aztec 
ancestors three hundred years before. They threw themselves 
upon the serried ranks of infantry with clubs and staves. Rushing 
up to the mouths of the cannon they drove their sombreros or hats 
of straw, into the muzzles. Order, command, or discipline, were 

1 Wards’ Mexico in 1827, vol. i. p, 169. 

2 The creoles although unfriendly to the Spaniards, and ready to rebel against 
them, were nevertheless willing to aid them against the Indians whom they more 


reasonably regarded, under the circumstances as the more dangerous of the two 
classes. 


MARFIL — MASSACRE AT GUANAJUATO — CALLEJA. 285 


entirely unknown to them. Their effort was simply to overwhelm 
by superiority of numbers. But the cool phalanx of creoles stood 
firm, until the Indian disorder became so great, and their strength 
so exhausted by repeated yet fruitless efforts, that the regulars 
commenced the work of slaughter with impunity. Calleja boasts 
chat Hidalgo lost “ten thousand men, of whom five thousand were 
put to the sword.” It seems, however, that he was unable to 
capture or disband the remaining insurgents ; for Hidalgo retreated 
to Guanajuato, and then fell back on Guadalaxara, leaving in the 
former city a guard under his friend Allende. 

- Calleja next attacked the rebel forces at the hacienda of Marfi, 
and having defeated Allende, who defended himself bravely, rushed 
onward towards the city of Guanajuato. This place he entered as 
conqueror. ‘The sacrifice of the prisoners of Marfil,”? says Ro- 
binson, ‘‘ was not sufficient to satiate his vindictive spirit. He 
glutted his vengeance on the defenceless population of Guanajuato. 
Men, women and children, were driven by his orders, into the 
great square; and fourteen thousand of these wretches, it is alleged, 
were butchered in a most barbarous manner. ‘Their throats were 
ut. The principal fountain of the city literally overflowed with 
blood. But, far from concealing these savage acts, Calleja, in his 
account of the covflict, exults in the honor of communicating the 
intelligence that he had purged the city of its rebellious popula- 
tion. The only apology offered for the sacrifice was that it would 
have wasted too much powder to have shot them, and therefore, 
on the principle of economy he cut their throats. Thus was this 
unfortunate city, in a single campaign, made the victim of both 
loyalists and insurgents. 

Hidalgo and his division were soon joined by Allende, and al- 
though they suffered all the disasters of a bad retreat as well as of 
Spanish victories, he still numbered about eighty thousand under 
his banners. He awaited Calleja at Guadalaxara, which he had 
surrounded with fortifications and armed with cannon, dragged by 
the Indians, over mountain districts from the port of San Blas, on 
the Pacific ; but it is painful to record the fact, that in this city Hi- 
dalgo was guilty of great cruelties to all the Europeans. Ward 
relates that between seven and eight hundred victims fell beneath 
the assassin’s blade. A letter, produced on Hidalgo’s trial, writ- 
ten to one of his lieutenants, charges the officer to seize as many 
Spaniards as he possibly can, and, moreover, directs him, if he has 
any reason to suspect his prisoners of entertaining seditious or 


restless ideas, to bury them at once in oblivion by putting such 
37 


286 INSURGENTS DEFEATED — EXECUTION OF HIDALGO. 


persons to death in some secret and solitary place, where their fate 
may remain forever unknown! As the cruelty of Old Spain to 
the Mexicans had well nigh driven them to despair, such savage 
assassinations, in turn, drove the Spaniards to revenge, or, at least 
furnished them with an excuse for their horrible atrocities. 

Calleja, intent on the pursuit of his Indian prey, was not long in 
following Hidalgo. The insurgent chief endeavored to excite the 
ardor of his troops, while he preserved some show of discipline in 
their ranks ; and, thus prepared, he gave battle to the Spaniards, 
at the bridge of Calderon, on the 17th of January, 1811. At first 
Hidalgo, was successful, but the rebels were no match for the 
royal troops kept in reserve by Calleja. With these he made a 
fierce charge upon the Indians, and sweeping through their broken 
masses he ‘‘ pursued and massacred them by thousands. ” 

Calleja was not a person either to conciliate or to pause in 
victory. He believed that rebellion could only be rooted out by 
utter destruction of the insurgents and their seed. Accordingly 
orders were issued to ‘‘ exterminate the inhabitants of every town 
or village that showed symptoms of adherence to the rebels,” 
whilst, from the pulpit, new denunciations were fulminated against 
all who opposed the royal authority. The insurgent chiefs fled, 
and reached Saltillo with about four thousand men. ‘There it was 
resolved to leave Rayon in command, while Hidalgo, Allende, 
Aldama and Absolo endeavored to reach the United States with 
an escort for the purpose of purchasing munitions of war with the 
treasure they had saved from the sacking of Guanajuato. But 
these fierce and vindictive soldiers were destined to end their lives 
by treachery. Hidalgo’s associate rebel, Ignacio Elizondo, hoping 
to make his peace with the government by betraying so rich a 
prize, delivered them up to the authorities on the 21st of March, 
1811, at Acatila de Bajan. Hidalgo was taken to Chihuahua, and, 
after being degraded from holy orders, was shot on the 27th of 
July, whilst Calleja was rewarded for his victories with the title of 
Conde de Calderon, won by his brilliant charge at the bridge near 
Guanajuato. 

Such is an outline of the warfare between the Sylla and Marius 
of this continent, and of some of the most prominent events in the 
origin of that revolution which finally resulted in the Mexican 
independence. 


CHAP Pi h Pi: 
1810 — 1816. 


VENEGAS VICEROY. — RAYON. —JuNTA IN 1811 —ITS WILLING- 
NESS TO RECEIVE FERDINAND VII. — PROCLAMATION BY THE 
JUNTA — MORELOS. — ACAPULCO TAKEN — SUCCESSES OF THE 
INSURGENTS. — SIEGE OF CUAUTLA — IZUCAR — ORIZABA — 
OAXACA — CHILPANZINGO. — CALLEJA VICEROY — ITURBIDE. — 
REVERSES OF INSURGENTS — MORELOS SHOT. 


LIEUTENANT GENERAL Don Francisco XAVIER VENEGAS, 


LIX. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1810 — 1813. 


Arter Hidalgo’s death the country was for a considerable 
time involved in a guerilla warfare which extended throughout the 
whole territory of Mexico, to the provincas wnternas of the north 
Rayon assumed command of the fragments of Hidalgo’s forces at 
Saltillo and retired to Zacatecas, but he had no command, or in- 
deed authority, except over his own men. The whole country was 
in ferment. The valley of Mexico was full of eager partisans, who 
lazo’d the sentinels even at the gates of the town; yet, in all the 
chief cities, the viceroy’s authority was still permanently acknow- 
ledged. 

Men of reflection immediately saw that the cause of liberation 
would be lost, if, amid all these elements of boiling discontent, 
there was no unity of opinion and action. The materials of success 
were ample throughout the nation; but they required organization 
under men in whose judgment and bravery the insurgent masses 
could rely. 

Such were the opinions of Rayon and his friends, who, in May, 
1811, occupied Zitacuaro, when on the 10th of the following Sep- 
tember, they assembled a Junta, or, central government, composed 
of five members chosen by a large body of the most respectable 
landed proprietors in the neighborhood, in conjunction with the 
Ayuntamiento and inhabitants of the town. 

The doctrines of this Junta were liberal, but they maintained a 
close intimacy with Spain, and even admitted the people’s willing- 
ness to receive Ferdinand VIT. as sovereign of Mexico provided he 


288 PROCLAMATION BY THE JUNTA — MORELOS. 


abandoned his European possessions for New Spain. When 
Morelos, joined the Junta he disapproved this last concession to 
the royalists, though it was chiefly defended by Rayon as an expe- 
dient measure when dealing with people over whom the name of 
king still exercised the greatest influence. This Junta was finally 
merged in the congress of Chilpanzingo. Its manifesto, directed 
to the viceroy in March, 1812, is worthy of rememberance, as 
it contains the several doctrines of the revolution admirably ex- 
pressed by Dr. Cos, who was its author. He paints in forci- 
ble language the misery created by the fifteen months of civil 
war, and the small reliance that Spain could place on creole 
troops, whose sympathies, at present, and whose efforts, in the 
end, would all be thrown into the scale of their country. He as- 
sumes as fundamental principles that America and Spain are nat- 
urally equal; that America has as much right to her Cortes as 
Spain has to hers; that the existing rulers in the Peninsula have 
no just authority over Mexico as long as their sovereign is a cap- 
tive, and, finally, he proposes that if ‘‘the Europeans will consent 
to give up the offices they hold, and allow the assemblage of a 
general congress, their persons and property shall be religiously 
respected, their salaries paid, and the same privileges granted them 
as to native Mexicans, who, on their side, will acknowledge Fer- 
dinand as the legitimate sovereign, and assist the Peninsula with 
their treasure, whilst they will at all times regard the Spaniards 
as fellow subjects of the same great empire.” 

The alternative of war was presented to the viceroy together 
with these moderate demands, but he was only requested to abate 
the personal cruelties that had hitherto been committed, and to 
save the towns and villages from sacking or destruction by fire. 
Yet the insane Venegas would listen to no terms with the rebels, 
and caused the manifesto to be burned in the great square, by the 
common executioner. The principles of the document, however, 
had been spread abroad among the people, and the flames of the 
hangman could no longer destroy the liberal doctrines which were 
deeply sown in the hearts of the people. | 

The distinguished revolutionary chief Morelos, a ee now 
appears prominently upon the stage. He had been commissioned 
by Hidalgo as Captain General of the provinces on the south-west 
coast in 1810, and departed for his government with as sorry an 
army as the troop of Falstaff. His escort consisted of a few ser- 
vants from his curacy, armed with six muskets and some old 
lances. But he gathered forces as he advanced. The Galeanas 


ACAPULCO TAKEN — SUCCESSES OF THE INSURGENTS. 289 


joined him with their adherents and swelled his numbers to near a 
thousand. They advanced to Acapulco, and having captured it 
with abundant booty, the insurgents soon found their ranks joined 
by numerous important persons, and, among them the Cura Mata- 
moros and the Bravos, whose names have, ever since, been promi- 
nently connected with the history and development of Mexico. 

The year 1811 was passed in a series of petty engagements ; 
but, in January, 1812, the insurgents penetrated within twenty- 
five leagues of the capital, where Galeana and Bravo took the 
town of ‘Tasco. | 

Morelos was victorious in several other actions in the same and 
succeeding months, and pushed his advanced guards into the val- 
ley of Mexico, where he occupied Chalco and San Agustin de 
las Cuevas, about twelve miles from the metropolis. Morelos 
finally resolved to make his stand at Cuautla, in the terra caliente, 
on the other side of the mountain ranges which hem in the valley ; 
and, to this place the viceroy Venegas despatched Calleja, who 
was summoned from the north and west, where, as may readily be 
imagined, so fiery a spirit had not been idle or innocent since the 
defeat of Hidalgo. 

On the Ist of January, 1812, Calleja reached Zitacuaro, whence 
the alarmed Junta fled to Sultepec. ‘The insatiate Spaniard took 
the town, decimated the inhabitants, razed the walls to the ground, 
and burnt the dwellings, sparing only the churches and convents. 
After this dreadful revenge upon a settlement which had committed 
no crime but in harboring the Junta, he made a triumphal entrance 
into Mexico, and, on the 14th of February, after a quarrel with the 
viceroy, and a solemn Te Deum, he departed towards Morelos, 
who was shut up in Cuautla de Amilpas. 

On the 19th Calleja attacked the town, but was forced to retreat. 
He then regularly besieged the place and its insurgent visiters for 
more than two months and a half. In this period, the troops on 
poth sides were not unoccupied. Various skirmishes took place, 
but without signal results of importance to either party. Morelos 
strove to prolong the siege until the rainy season set ‘in, when he 
felt confident that Calleja would be forced to withdraw his troops, 
who could not endure the combined heat and moisture of the tierra 
caliente Curing the summer months. Calleja, on the other hand, 
supposed that by sealing the town hermetically, and cutting off all 
supplies, its inhabitants and troops would soon be forced to sur- 
render. Nor did he act unwisely for the success of his master. 
Famine prevailed in the besieged garrison. Corn was almost the 


290 SIEGE OF CUAUTLA — IZUCAR — ORIZABA. 


only food. A cat sold for six dollars, a lizard for two, and rats 
and other vermin for one. But Morelos still continued firm, 
hoping by procrastination and endurance, to preserve the con- 
stancy of his men until the month of June, when the country is 
generally deluged with rain and rendered insalubrious to all who 
dwell habitually in colder regions, or are unacclimated in the lower 
vallies and table lands of Mexico. His hopes, however, were not 
destined to be realized, for, upon consultation, it was found abso- 
lutely necessary to risk a general engagement or to abandon the 
town. The general engagement was considered injudicious in the 
present condition of his troops, so that no alternative remained but 
that of retreat. This was safely effected on the night of the 2d of 
May, 1812, notwithstanding the whole army of the insurgents was 
obliged to pass between the enemy’s batteries, After quitting the 
town, the forces were ordered to disperse, so as to avoid forming 
any concentrated point of attack for the pursuing Spaniards, and to 
reunite as soon as possible at Izucar, which was held by Don 
Miguel Bravo. Calleja entered the abandoned town cautiously 
after the departure of the besieged, but the cruel revenge he took 
on the innocent inhabitants and harmless edifices, is indelibly im- 
printed in Mexican history as one of the darkest stains on the 
character of a soldier, whose memory deserves the execration of 
civilized men. 

From Izucar, Morelos entered Tehuacan triumphantly, whence 
he passed to Orizaba where he captured artillery, vast quantities 
of tobacco, and a large amount of treasure. But he was not allow- 
ed to rest long in peace. The regular forces pursued his partizan 
warriors ; and we next hear of him at Oaxaca, where he took pos- 
session of the town after a brief resistance. It was. at this place 
that Guadalupe Victoria, afterwards president of the republic, 
performed a feat which merits special remembrance as an act of 
extraordinary heroism and daring in the face of an enemy. ‘The 
town was moated and the single drawbridge suspended, so as to 
cut off the approach of the insurgents. There were no boats to 
cross the stagnant water; and the insurgents, as they approached, 
were dismayed by the difficulty of reaching a town which seemed — 
almost in their grasp. At this moment Guadalupe Victoria, sprang 
into the moat, swam across the strait in sight of the soldiers in the 
town who seem to have been panic struck by his signal courage, 
and cut the ropes that suspended the drawbridge, which, immedi- 
ately falling over the moat, allowed the soldiers of Morelos a free 
entrance into the city! 


OAXACA — CHILPANZINGO—CALLEJA VICEROY—ITURBIDE. 291 


Here he rested for some time undisturbed by the Spaniards. 
He conquered the whole of the province with the exception of 
Acapulco, to which he laid siege in February, 1813, but it did not 
lower its flag until the following August. ‘The control of a whole 
province, and the victories of Bravo and Matamoros, elsewhere in 
1812 and 1813, considerably increased the importance and influence 
of Morelos, who now devoted himself to the assemblage of a 
national Congress at Chilpanzingo composed of the original Junta 
of Zitacuaro, the deputies elected by the province of Oaxaca, and 
others selected by them as representatives of the provinces which 
were in the royalists’ hands. On the 13th of November, 1813, this 
body published a declaration of the absolute independence of 
Mexico. ! 


Don Freuix Maria CaLuesa, 
LX. Viceroy or New Spain. —1813— 1816. 


This was the period at which the star of the great leader, More- 
los, culminated. Bravo was still occasionally successful, and the 
commander-in-chief, concentrating his forces at Chilpanzingo, 
prepared an expedition against the province of Valladolid. He 
departed on the 8th of November, 1813; and, marching across a 
hitherto untraversed country of a hundred leagues, he reached this 
point about Christmas. But here he found a large force under 
Llano and Cotonet IrurBipE, — who was still a loyalist — drawn 
up to encounter him. He attacked the enemy rashly with his jaded 
troops, and on the following day, was routed, with the loss of his 
best regiments and all his artillery. 

At Puruaran, Iturbide again assailed Morelos successfully, and 
Matamoros was taken prisoner. Efforts were made to save the 
life of this eminent soldier, yet Calleja, who had succeeded Venegas 
as viceroy was too cruelly ungenerous to spare so daring a rebel. 
He was shot, and his death was avenged by the slaughter of all 
the prisoners who were in the hands of the insurgents. 

For a while Morelos struggled bravely against adversity, his 


‘We must mention an event, characteristic of Bravo, which occurred during this 
period. Bravo took Palmar, by storm, after a resistance of three days. Three 
hundred prisoners fell into his hands, who were placed at his disposal by Morelos. 
Bravo immediately offered them to the viceroy Venegas in exchange for his futher, 
Don Leonardo Bravo, who had been sentenced to death in the capital. The offer 
was rejected, and Don Leonardo ordered to immediate execution. But the son at 
once commanded the prisoners to be liberated, — saying that he ‘‘ wished to put it 
out of his power to avenge his parent’s death, lest, in the first moments of grief the 
temptation should prove irresistible. ”» — Ward, 1 vol. 204. 


292 REVERSES OF INSURGENTS — MORELOS SHOT. 


character and resources rising with every new danger, difficulty or 
loss. But the die was cast. Oaxaca was recaptured by the royal- 
ists on the 28th of March, 1814. Miguel Bravo died at Puebla on 
the scaffold; Galeana fell in battle; and the Congress was driven 
from Chilpanzingo to the forest of Apatzingo, where, on the 22d 
of October, 1814, it enacted the constitution which bears the name 
of its wild birth-place. 

From this temporary refuge the insurgents resolved to cross the 
country by rapid marches to Tehuacan in the province of Puebla, 
where Mier y Teran had gathered a considerable force, which 
Morelos imagined would become the nucleus of an overwhelming 
army, as soon as he joined them. But his hopes were not destined 
to be realized. He had advanced as far as Tesmaluca, when the 
Indians of the village betrayed his slender forces to General 
Concha, who fell upon them, on the 5th of November, 1815, in the 
narrow gorge of a mountain road. The assault was from the rear; 
so that Morelos, ordering Nocalas Bravo to hasten his march with 
the main body of the army as an escort for the illstared congress, 
resolved to fight the royalists until he placed the national legisla- 
ture out of danger. ‘‘ My life’? — said he — ‘is of little conse- 
quence, provided congress be saved :—my race was run when I 
saw an independent government established ! ” 

The brave soldier-priest, with fifty men, maintained the pass 
against Concha, until only one trooper was left beside him. So 
furious was his personal bearing, during this mortal conflict, that 
the royalists feared to advance until he was bereft of all support. 
When finally captured, he was stripped, chained, treated with the 
most shameless cruelty, and carried back to Tesmaluca. Concha, 
however, was less cruel than his men. He received the rebel 
chief politely, and despatched him to the capital for trial. Crowds 
of eager citizens flocked to see the celebrated partizan warrior who 
had so long held the Spanish forces at bay. But his doom was 
sealed ; and, on the 22d of December, 1815, Concha removed him 
to the hospital of San Cristoval. After dining with the general, 
and thanking him for his kindness, he walked to the rear of the 
building, where, kneeling down, he bound a handkerchief over his 
eyes and uttering the simple ejaculation, ‘‘ Lord, if I have done 
well, thou knowest it; —if ill, to thy infinite mercy I commend my 
soul, ?? —he gave the fatal signal to the soldiers who were drawn 
up to shoot him. 


CHA PATE Reh. 


APODACA VICEROY. — SPANISH CONSTITUTION OF 1812 PROCLAIM- 
ED IN MEXICO.— CONDITION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY. 


— VICTORIA — MINA LANDS AT SOTO LA MARINA —HIS EF- 
FORTS — LOS REMEDIOS — GUERILLAS — HE IS SHOT. — PADRE 
TORRES — ITURBIDE — APODOCA SELECTS HIM TO ESTABLISH 
ABSOLUTISM. — ITURBIDE PROMULGATES THE PLAN OF IGUA- 
LA— ARMY OF THE THREE GUARANTIES. 


Don Juan Ruiz pE Apopaca, ConpE DEL VENADITO, 


LXI. Viceroy or New SPAIN. 
1816 — 1821. 


Wir the death of Morelos the hopes of the insurgents were 
crushed and their efforts paralized. This extraordinary man, so 
fertile in resources, and blending in himself the mingled power of 
priest and general, had secured the confidence of the masses, who 
found among his officers, none upon whom they could rally with 
perfect reliance. Besides this, the congress which had been con- 
ducted safely to Tehuacan by Bravo, was summarily dissolved by 
General Teran, who considered it an ‘“‘inconvenient appendage of a 
camp.”? We cannot but regard this act of the general as unwise 
at a moment, when the insurgents lost such a commander as 
Morelos. By the dissolution of the congress the nation abandoned 
another point of reunion; and from that moment, the cause began 
to fail in all parts of the country. 

The Constitution, sanctioned by the Cortes in 1812, had, 
meanwhile, been proclaimed in Mexico, on the 29th of September 
of that year; and, whilst the people felt somewhat freer under it, 
they were enabled, by the liberty of the press, which lasted sixty- 


six days, to expend their new-born patriotism on paper instead of 
38 


294 CONDITION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY. 


in battles. These popular excitements, served to sustain the 
spirits of the people, notwithstanding the losses of the army; so 
that when Apodaca, assumed the reins of the viceroyalty in 1816, 
the country was still republican at heart, though all the insurgent 
generals were either captured or hidden in the wilderness, whilst 
their disbanded forces, in most instances, had accepted the indulto, 
or pardon, proffered for their return to allegiance. 


The remaining officers of Morelos spread themselves over the 
country, as there was no longer any centre of action ; and each of 
them, occupying a different district, managed, for a while. to sup- 
port revolutionary fervor throughout the neighborhood. ‘‘ Guerrere 
occupied the west coast, where he maintained himself until the 
year 1821, when he joined Iturbide. Rayon commanded in the 
vicinity of Tlalpujahua, where he successively maintained two for- 
tified camps on the Cerro del Gallo, and on Coporo. 'Teran held 
the district of Tehuacan, in Puebla. Bravo was a wanderer 
throughout the country. The Bajio was tyrannized over by the 
Padre Torres, while Guadalupe Victoria occupied the important 
province of Vera Cruz.” ! 

The chief spite of the royalists, — who hunted these republican 
heroes, among the forests and mountain fastnesses of Mexico, as 
the Covenanters had been hunted in Scotland, — seems to have 
fallen upon the last named of these patriot generals. Victoria’s 
haunt was_ chiefly in the passes near the Puente del Rey, now the 
Puente Nacional, or National bridge, on the road leading from the 
port of Vera Cruz to the capital. He was prepared to act either 
with a large force of guerillus, or, with a simple body guard; and, 
knowing the country perfectly, he was enabled to descend from his 
fastnesses among the rocks, and thus to cut off, almost entirely, all 
communication between the coast and the metropolis. At length, 
superior forces were sent to pursue him with relentless fury. His 
men gradually deserted when the villages that formerly supplied 
them with food refused further contributions. Efforts were made 
to seduce him from his principles and to ensure his loyalty. But 
he refused the rank and rewards offered by the viceroy as the price 
of his submission. At length he found himself alone in his 
resistance, in the midst of countrymen, who, if they would no 
longer fight under his banner, were too faithful to betray him. 
Yet he would not abandon the cause, but, taking his sword and 
a small stock of raiment, departed for the mountains, where he 


1 Ward vol. i, 221. 


~ 


VICTORIA — MINA LANDS AT SOTO LA MARINA, 295 


wandered for thirty months, living on the fruits of the forest and 
enawing the bones of dead animals found in their recesses. Nor 
did he emerge from this impenetrable concealment, until two faith- 
ful Indians, whom he had known in prosperous days, sought him 
out with great difficulty, and, communicating the joyous intelli- 
gence of the revolution of 1821, brought him back once more to 
their villages where he was received with enthusiastic reverence as 
a patriot raised from the dead. When discovered by the Indians 
he was worn to a skeleton, covered with hair, and clad in a tattered 
wrapper; but, amid all his distresses and losses, he had preserved 
and treasured his loyalty to the cause of liberty and his untarnish- 
ed sword! : 

Meanwhile another actor in this revolutionary army had appeared 
upon the stage. This was Xavier Mina, a guerilla chief of old 
Spain, who fled from his country, in consequence of the unfortu- 
nate effort to organize an outbreak in favor of the Cortes, at 
Pampeluna, after the dissolution of that assembly by the king. He 
landed on the coast of Mexico at Soto la Marina with a brave band 
of foreigners, chiefly North Americans, on the 15th of April, 1817. 
His forces amounted to only three hundred and fifty-nme men, 
including officers, of whom fifty-one deserted before he marched 
into the interior. Leaving one hundred of these soldiers at Soto la 
Marina under the command of Major Sarda, he attempted with the 
remainder, to join the independents in the heart of the country. 

Mina pressed onwards successfully, defeating several royalist 
parties, until he reached Sombrero, whence he sallied forth upon 
humerous expeditions, one of which was against the fortified 
hacienda or plantation of the Marques of Jaral, a creole nobleman, 
from which the inhabitants and the owner fled at his approach. 
His troops sacked this wealthy establishment, and Mina transferred 
to the public chest one hundred and forty thousand dollars, found 
concealed in the house. This nobleman, it is true, had given in 
his adhesion to the royal cause and fortified his dwelling against 
the insurgents who hitherto refrained from attacking him. Never- 
theless, the unprovoked blow of an independent leader against a 
native of the country, and especially against a man whose exten- 
sive farming operations ‘concentrated the interests of so large a 
laboring class, was not calculated to inspire confidence in Mina 
among the masses of the people. 

Whilst the guerilla chief was thus pursuing his way successfully 
in the heart of the country, and receiving occasional reinforcements 
from the natives, the garrison he left at Soto la Marina fell into the 


296 © HIS EFFORTS —LOS REMEDIOS — GUERILLAS. 


hands of Spanish levies, two thousand of whom surrounded the 
slender band. Notwithstanding the inequality of forces between 
the assailants and the besieged, the royalists were unable to take 
the place by storm; but, after repeated repulses, General Arre- 
dondo proposed terms which were accepted by Major Sarda, the 
independent commander. It is scarcely necessary to say that this 
condition was not fulfilled by the Spaniards, who sent the capitu- 
lated garrison in irons, by a circuitous journey, to the sickly Castle 


of San Juan de Ulua at Vera Cruz, whence some of the unfortunate _ 


wretches were marched into the interior whilst others were de- 
spatched across the sea to the dungeons of Cadiz, Melilla and 
Ceuta. This was a severe blow to Mina, who nevertheless was, 
unparalized by it but continued active in the vicinity of Sombrero 
to which he retreated after an illjjudged attempt upon the town of 
Leon, where the number of his troops was considerably diminished. 
Sombrero was invested, soon after, by a force of three thousand 
five hundred and forty soldiers, under Don Pascual Linan, who 
had been appointed Field Marshal, by Apodaca, and despatched to 
the Bajio. This siege was ultimately successful on the part of the 
royalists. The fresh supplies promised to Mina did not arrive. 
Colonel Young, his second in command, died in repulsing an as- 
sault; and, upon the garrison’s attempting to evacuate the town, 
under Colonel Bradburn, on the night of the 19th of August, the 
enemy fell upon the independents with such vigor that but fifty of 
Mina’s whole corps escaped. ‘‘No quarter,’’ says Ward, “ was 
given in the field, and the unfortunate wretches who had been 
left in the hospital wounded, were by Lifian’s orders, carried or 
dragged along the ground from their beds to the square where they 
were stripped and shot! ”’ | 

Mina, as a last resort, threw himself into the fort of Los Reme- 
dios, a natural fortification on the lofty mountain chain rising out 
of the plains of the Bajio between Silao and Penjamo, separated 
from the rest by precipices, and deep ravines. 

Lifian’s army sat down before Remedios on the 27th of August. 
Mina left the town so as to assail the army from without by his 
guerillas, whilst the garrison kept the main body engaged with the 
fort. During this *period he formed the project of attacking the 
town of Guanajuato, which, in fact, he accomplished; yet, after his 
troops had penetrated the heart of the city, their courage failed and 
they retreated before the loyalists who rallied after the panic created 
by the unexpected assault at nightfall. On retreating from Guana- 
juato, our partizan warrior took the road to the Rancho del Vena- — 


’ HE IS SHOT— PADRE TORRES — ITURBIDE. 297 


dito where he designed passing the night in order to consult upon 
his future plans with his friend Mariano Herrera. Here he was 
detected by a friar, who apprised Orrantia of the brave Mina’s 
presence, and, on the morning of the 27th of October, he was 
seized and conveyed to Irapuato. On the 11th of November, 
1817, in the 28th year of his age, he was shot by order of Apo- 
daca, on a rock, in sight of Los Remedios. i 

At the end of December the ammunition of the insurgents in this 
stronghold was entirely exhausted, and its evacuation was resolved 
on. This was attempted on the Ist of January, 1818, but, with 
the exception of Padre Torres, the commander, and twelve of 
Mina’s division, few or none of the daring fugitives escaped. The 
wretched inmates of the fort, the women, and garrison hospitals of 
wounded, were cut down, bayoneted, and burned. On the 6th of 
March, the fort of Jauxilla, the insurgents’ last stronghold in the 
central parts of the country, fell, while, towards the middle of the 
year, all the revolutionary chiefs were dislodged and without com- 
mands, except Guerrero, who still maintained himself on the right 
bank of the river Zacatula, near Colima, on the Pacific. But even 
he was cut off from communication with the interior, and was al- 
together without hope of assistance from without. The heart of 
the nation, and the east coast, — which was of most importance so 
far as the reception of auxiliaries by the independents was con- 
cerned, — were, thus, in complete possession of the royalists; so 
that a viceroy declared in his despatches to Spain, ‘‘ that he 
would be answerable for the safety of Mexico without a single ad- 
ditional soldier being sent out to reinforce the armies that were in 
the field. ”’ 

But the viceroy Apodaca, confident as he was of the defeat of 
the insurrection, did not know the people with whom he dealt as 
well as his predecessor Calleja,} who, with all his cruelty, seems 
to have enjoyed sagacious intervals in which he: comprehended 
perfectly the deep seated causes of revolutionary feeling in Mexico, 
even if he was indisposed to sympathize with them or to permit 
their manifestation by the people. In fact, the revolution was not 
quelled. It slept, for want of a leader ; — but, at last he appeared 
in the person of Acustin DE ITurBIDE, a native Mexican, whose 
military career, in the loyalist cause had been not only brilliant but 
eminently useful, for it was in consequence of the two severe blows 
inflicted by him upon the insurgents in the actions of Valladolid 


' See Calleja’s confidential letter to the Spanish minister of war, with a private 
report on the Mexican Revolution. Ward, vol. i, p. 509 — Appendix. 


298 APODOCA SELECTS HIM TO ESTABLISH ABSOLUTISM. 


and Puruaran that the great army of Morelos was routed and de- 


stroyed. 


In 1820, Apodoca, who was no friend of the constitution, and 


who suffered a diminution of power by its operation, was well dis- 


posed to put it down by force, and to proclaim once more the ab- 
solute authority of the king. The elective privileges, which the 
constitution secured to the people, together with the principles of 
freedom which those elections were calculated to foster among the 
masses, were considered by the viceroy as dangerous in a country 
so recently the theatre of revolution. The insurrection was re- 
garded by him as ended forever. He despised, perhaps, the few 
distinguished persons who yet quietly manifested their preference 
for liberalism ; and, like all men of despotic character and confident 
of power, he undervalued the popular masses, among whom there 
is ever to be found common sense, true appreciation of natural 
rights, and firmness to vindicate them whenever they are confident 
of the leaders who are to control their destiny when embarked 
upon the stormy sea of rebellion. 

Apodaca, in pursuit of his project to restore absolutism on this 
continent, fixed his eyes upon the gallant IrurBIpE, whose po- 
lished manners, captivating address, elegant person, ambitious 
spirit, and renowned military services, signalized him as a person 
likely to play a distinguished part in the restoration of a supreme 
power whose first favors would probably be showered upon the 
successful soldier of a crusade against constitutional freedom. 

Accordingly the viceroy offered Iturbide the command of a force 
upon the west coast, at the head of which he was to proclaim the 
re-establishment of the king’s absolute authority. The command 
was accepted; but Iturbide, who had been for four years unem- 
ployed, had, in this interval of repose, reflected well upon the con- 
dition of Mexico, and was satisfied that if the creoles could be in- 
duced to co-operate with the independents, the Spanish yoke might 
be cast off. There were only eleven Spanish expeditionary regi- 
ments in the whole of Mexico, and although there were upwards 
of seventy thousand old Spaniards in the different provinces who 
supported these soldiers, they could not oppose, effectually, the 
seven veteran and seventeen provincial regiments of natives, aided 
by the masses of people who had rene their attachment to 
liberalism. 

Instead, therefore, of allying himself with the cause of a falling 
monarchy, whose reliance must chiefly be confined to succors from 
across the ocean, Iturbide resolved to abandon the viceroy and his 


XQ 


RS NR I REE 0 a ao 


ITURBIDE PROMULGATES THE PLAN OF IGUALA. 299 


criminal project against the constitution, and to throw himself with 
his forces upon the popular cause of the country. It was a bold 
but successful move. 

On the 24th of February, 1821, he was at the small town of 
Tguala, on the road to Acapulco; and on that day, at his head- 
quarters, he proclaimed the celebrated Puan or Icuaua, the sev- 
eral principles of which are : — ‘‘ Independence, the maintenance 
of Roman Catholicity, and Union ;’? — whence his forces obtained 
the name of the ‘‘ Army of the three Guaranties.”’ 

As this is probably one of the most important state papers in the 
history of Mexico, and is often referred to without being fully un- 
derstood, we shall present it to the reader entire: # 

Puan oF Ieuata. 

ArticLe 1.— The Mexican nation is independent of the Span- 
ish nation, and of every other, even on its own continent. 

Art. 2.—Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its in- 
habitants profess. 

Art. 3.— They shall all be united, without any distinction 
between Americans and Europeans. 

Art. 4. — The government shall be a constitutional monarchy. 

Art. 5.—A Junta shall be named, consisting of individuals 
who enjoy the highest reputation in different parties which have 
shown themselves. 

Art. 6.— This Junta shall be under the presidency of his ex- 
cellency the Conde del Venadito, the present viceroy of Mexico. 

Art. 7.— It shall govern in the name of the nation, according 
to the laws now in force, and its principal business will be to 
convoke, according to such rules as it shall deem expedient, a 
congress for the formation of a constitution more suitable to the 
country. 

Art. 8.— His Majesty Ferdinand VII. shall be invited to the 
throne of the empire, and in case of his refusal, the Infantes 
Don Carlos and Don Francisco De Paula. 

Art. 9.— Should his Majesty Ferdinand VII. and his august 
brothers, decline the invitation, the nation is at liberty to invite to 
the imperial throne any member of reigning families whom it may 
choose to select. 

Art. 10.— The formation of the constitution by the congress, 
and the oath of the emperor to observe it, must precede his entry 
into the country. 

Art. 11.— The distinction of castes is abolished, which was 
made by the Spanish law, excluding them from the rights of citi- 


300 ARMY OF THE THREE GUARANTIES. 


zenship. All the inhabitants are citizens, and equal, and the door 
of advancement is open to virtue and merit. 

Art. 12. — An army shall be formed for the support of religion, 
independence, and union, guaranteeing these three principles, and 
therefore shall be called the army of the three guaranties. ; 

Art. 13.—It shall solemnly swear to defend the fundamental 
basis of this plan. 

Arr. 14.— It shall strictly observe the military ordinances now 
in force. 

Arr. 15.— There shall be no other promotions than those which 
are due to seniority, or which are necessary for the good of the 
Service. . 

Art. 16.— The army shall be considered as of the line. 

Art. 17.— The old partizans of independence who shall adhere 
to this plan, shall be considered as individuals of this army. 

Art. 18.— The patriots and peasants who shall adhere to it 
hereafter, shall be considered as provincial militiamen. 

Art. 19. — The secular and regular priests shall be continued in 
the state which they now are. 

Art. 20. — All the public functionaries, civil, ecclesiastical, po- 
litical and military, who adhere to the cause of independence, shail 
pe continued in their offices, without any distinction between 
Americans and Europeans. 

Art. 21.— Those functionaries, of whatever degree and condi- 
tion who dissent from the cause of independence, shall be divested 
of their offices, and shall quit the territory without taking with 
them their families and effects. 

Art. 22.-— The military commandants shall regulate themselves 
according to the general instructions in conformity with this plan, 
which shall be transmitted to them. 

Art. 23.— No accused person shall be condemned capitally by 
the military commandants. Those accused of treason against the 
nation, which is the next greatest crime after that of treason to the 
Divine Ruler, shall be conveyed to the fortress of Barbaras, where 
they shall remain until congress shall resolve on the punishment. 
that ought to be inflicted on them. | 

Art. 24, —It being indispensable to the country, that this ela 
should be carried into effect, inasmuch as the welfare of that 
country is its object, every individual of the army shall maintain it, 
to the shedding (if it be necessary) of the last drop of his blood. 

Town of Iguala, 24th February, 1821. 


CHAPTER IV. 
1821 — 1824. 


O’DONOJU VICEROY. — CONDUCT OF ITURBIDE — NOVELLA. — RE- 
VOLT — TREATY OF CORDOVA.—FIRST MEXICAN CORTES — 
ITURBIDE EMPEROR—HIS CAREER—EXILED TO ITALY. — 
ITURBIDE RETURNS — ARREST — EXECUTION HIS CHARACTER 
AND SERVICES. 


O’Donosu, LXII. Viczroy or NEw Spain, 


IrurBIDE, Emperor oF Mexico. — 1821 — 1824. 


Ir will be seen by the Plan of Iguala, that Mexico was designed 
to become an independent sovereignty under Ferdinand VII. or, in 
‘the event of his refusal, under the Infantes Don-Carlos and Don 
Francisco de Paula. Iturbide was still a royalist — not a repub- 
lican ; and it is very doubtful whether he would ever have assented 
to popular authority, even had his life been spared to witness the 
final development of the revolution. It is probable that his pene- 
trating mind distinguished between popular hatred of unjust 
restraint, and the genuine capacity of a nation for liberty, nor is it 
unlikely that he found among his countrymen but few of those self- 
controling, self-sacrificing and progressive elements, which consti- 
tute the only foundation upon which a republic can be securely 
founded. His ambition had not yet been fully developed by 
success, and it cannot be imagined that he had already fixed his 
heart upon the imperial throne. 

When the Plan of Iguala was proclaimed, the entire army of the 
future emperor, consisted of only eight hundred men, all of whom 
took the oath of fidelity to the project, though many deserted when 
they found the country was not immediately unanimous in its 
approval. | 

In the capital, the viceroy appears to have been paralized by the 
sudden and unexpected movement of his officer. He paused, 
hesitated, failed to act, and was deposed by the Europeans, who 
treated him as they had Iturrigaray in 1808. Don Francisco de 
Novella, an artillery officer, was installed temporarily in his stead, 


but the appointment created a dissension among the people in the 
39 


302 REVOLT — TREATY OF CORDOVA. 


capital and the country, and this so completely prostrated the action 
of the central authorities, who might have crushed the revolution 
by a blow, that Iturbide was enabled to prosecute his designs 
throughout the most important parts of the interior of the country, 
without the slightest resistance. 

He seized a million of dollars on their way to the west coast, 
and joined Guerrero who still held out on the river Zacatula with 
the last remnant of the old revolutionary forces. Guerrero gave in 
his adhesion to Iturbide, as soon as he ascertained that it was the 
general’s design to make Mexico independent, though, in all likeli- 
hood, he disapproved the other features of the plan. Guerrero’s 
act was of the greatest national importance It rallied all the 
veteran fighters and friends of Morelos andthe Bravos. Almost 
all of the former leaders and their dispersed bands, came forth, at 
the cry of ‘“‘ independence,’’ under the banner of Iturbide. Vic- 
toria even, for a while, befriended the rising hero; but he had 
fought for a liberal government, and did not long continue on 
amicable terms with one who could not control his truly indepen- 
dent spirit. The clergy, as well as the people, signified their® 
intention to support the gallant insurgent;— and, in fact, the 
whole country, from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, with the exception of 
the capital, was soon open in its adhesion to him and his army. 


Don Juan O’Donosv, 
LXII. Vicrroy or New Spain. — 1821. 


Iturbide was now in full authority, and whilst preparing to march 
on the city of Mexico, in which the viceroy, ad interim, was shut 
up, he learned that Don Juan O’Donoju had arrived at San Juan 
de Ulua to fill the place of Apodaca as viceroy. Proposals were 
immediately sent by the general to this new functionary, and in an 
interview with him at Cordova, Iturbide proposed the adoption of — 
the Plan of Iguala by treaty, as the only project by which the 
Spaniards in Mexico could be saved from the fury of the people, 
and the sovereignty of the colony preserved for Ferdinand. We 
shall not pause to enquire whether the viceroy was justified or even 
empowered, to compromise the rights of Spain by such a compact. 
O’Donoju, though under the safeguard of a truce, was in truth a 
helpless man as soon as he touched the soil of Mexico, for no 
portions of it were actually under the Spanish authority except the 
castle of San Juan de Ulua and the capital, whose garrisons were 
chiefly composed of European levies. Humanity, perhaps, ulti- 
mately controled his decision, and in the name of his master, he 


FIRST MEXICAN CORTES —ITURBIDE EMPEROR. 303 


recognised the independence of Mexico and yielded the metropolis 
to the “‘ army of the three Guaranties,”’ which entered it peacefully 
on the 27th of September, 1821. A provisional Junta of thirty-six 
persons immediately elected a regency of five, of which Iturbide 
was president, and, at the same time, he was created Generalissimo, 
Lord High laginival: and assigned a yearly stipend of one hundred 
and twenty Se ussad dollars. 

On the 24th of February, 1822, the first Mexican Congress or 
Cortes, met; but it contained within it the germ of all the future 
discontents, which since that day, have harassed and nearly ruined 
Mexico. Scarcely had this body met when three parties manifested 
their bitter animosities and personal ambitions. The Bourbonists 
adhered, loyally, to the Plan of Iguala, a constitutional monarchy 
and the sovereignty of Ferdinand. The Republicans, discarded 
the plan asa device that had served its day, and insisted upon a 
central or federal republic; and, last of all, the partisans of the 
successful soldier, still clung to all of the plan save the clause 
which gave the throne to a Bourbon prince, for, at heart, they 
desired to place Iturbide himself upon it, and thus to cut off their 
country forever from all connection with Europe. 

As soon as O’Donoju’s treaty of Cordova reached Spain, it was 
nullified by the Cortes, and the Bourbon party in Mexico, of course 
fell with it. ‘The Republicans and Iturbidists, alone remained on 
the field to contend for the prize, and after congress had disgraced 
itself by incessant bickerings over the army and the public funds, a 
certain Pio Marcha, first sergeant of the first regiment of infantry 
gathered a band of leperos before the palace of Iturbide on the 
night of the 18th of May, 1822, and proclaimed him Ernperor, with 
the title of Acustin THE First. A show of resistance was made 
by Iturbide against the proffered crown; but it is likely that it was 
in reality, as faint as his joy was unbounded at the sudden elevation 
from a barrack room to the imperial palace. Congress, of course, 
approved the decision of the mob and army. ‘The provinces 
sanctioned the acts of their representatives, and Iturbide ascended 
the throne. 

But his reign was brief. Rapid success, love of power, impa- 
tience of restraint, — all of which are characteristic of the Spanish 
soldier, — made him strain the bonds of constitutional right. His 
Struggles for control were incessant. ‘‘ He demanded,” says 
Ward, ‘a veto upon all articles of the constitution then under dis- 
cussion, and the right of appointing and removing, at pleasure, the 
members of the supreme tribunal of justice. He recommended 


7 


304 HIS CAREER— EXILED TO ITALY. 


also the establishment of a military tribunal in the capital, with 
powers but little inferior to those exercised by the Spanish com- 
mandants during the revolution; and when these proposals were 
firmly rejected, he arrested, on the night of the 26th August, 1822, 
fourteen of the deputies who had advocated, during the discussion, 
principles but little in unison with the views of the government.” 

This high handed measure, and the openly manifested displea- 
sure of congress, produced so complete a rupture between the em- 
peror and the popular representatives, that it was impossible to 
conduct public affairs with any concert of action. Accordingly, 
Iturbide dissolved the assembly, and on the 30th of October, 1822, 
created an Instituent Junta of forty-five persons selected by himself 
from amongst the most pliant members of the recent congress. 
This irregularly formed body was intolerable to the people, while 
the expelled deputies, who returned to their respective districts, 
soon spread the spirit of discontent and proclaimed the American 
usurper to be as dangerous as the European despot. 

In November, General Garza headed a revolt in the northern 
provinces. Santa Anna, then governor of Vera Cruz, declared 
againt the emperor. General Echavari, sent by Iturbide to crush 
the future president of Mexico, resolved not to stem the torrent of 
public opinion, and joined the general he had been commissioned 
to capture. Guadalupe Victoria, — driven to his fastnesses by the 
emperor, who was unable to win the incorruptible patriot, de- 
scended once more from the mountain forests, where he had been 
concealed, and joined the battalions of Santa Anna. And, on the 
Ist of February, 1823, a convention, called the “‘ Act of Casa- 
Mata,”’ was signed, by which the re-establishment of the National 
Representative Assembly was pledged. 

The country was soon in arms. The Marques Vibanco, Gen- 
erals Guerrero, Bravo, and Negrete, in various sections of the 
nation, proclaimed their adhesion to the popular movement; and 
on the 8th of March, 1823, Iturbide, finding that the day was lost, 
offered his abdication to such members of the old congress as he 
was able to assemble hastily in the metropolis. The abdication 
was, however, twice refused on the ground that congress, by ac- 
cepting it, would necessarily sanction the legality of his right to 
wear the crown; nevertheless, that body permitted his departure 
from Mexico, after endowing him liberally with an income of 
twenty-five thousand dollars a year, besides providing a vessel to 
bear him and his family to Leghorn in Italy. 

Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete entered the capital on the 27th of 


ITURBIDE RETURNS — ARREST — EXECUTION. 305 


March, and were chosen by the old congress which quickly reas- 
sembled, as a triumvirate to exercise supreme executive powers 
until the new congress assembled in the following August. In 
October, 1824, this body finally sanctioned the federal constitution, 
which, after various revolutions, overthrows, and reforms, was re- 
adopted in the year 1847. 

On the 14th of July, 1824, a vessel under British colors was per- 
ceived on the Mexican coast near the mouth of the Santander. On 
the next day, a Polish gentlemen came on shore from the ship, and, 
announcing himself as Charles de Beneski, visited General Felix la 
Garza, commandant of the district of Soto la Marina. He pro- 
fessed to visit that remote district, with a friend, for the purpose of 
purchasing land from the government on which they designed es- 
tablishing a colony. Garza gave them leave to enter the country 
for this purpose; but suspicions were soon aroused against the 
singular visiters and they were arrested. As soon as the friend of 
the Pole was stripped of his disguise, the Emperor Iturbide stood 
in front of Garza, whom he had disgraced for his participation in 
the revolt during his brief reign. 

La Garza immediately secured the prisoner, and sent him to 
Padilla, where he delivered him to the authorities of Tamaulipas. 
The state legislature being in session, promptly resolved, in the 
excess of patriotic zeal, to execute a decree of the congress, passed 
in the preceding April, by condemning the royal exile to death. 
Short time was given Iturbide to arrange his affairs. He was 
allowed no appeal to the general government. He confessed to a 
priest on the evening of the 19th of July, and was led to the place 
of execution, where he fell, pierced with four balls, two of which 
took effect in his brain and two in his heart ! 

Thus perished the hero who, suddenly, unexpectedly, and ef- 
fectually, crushed the power of Spain in North America. It is not 
fair to judge him by the standards that are generally applied to the 
life of a distinguished civilian, or even of a successful soldier, in 
countries where the habits and education of the people fit them for 
duties requiring forbearance, patience, or high intellectual culture. 
Iturbide was, according to all reliable accounts, a refined gentle- 
man, yet he was tyrannical and sometimes cruel, for it is recorded 
in his own handwriting, that on Good Friday, 1814, “in honor of 
the day, he had just ordered three hundred excommunicated 
wretches to be shot!”’ His early life was passed in the saddle 
and the barrack room; nor had he much leisure to pursue the 
Studies of a statesman, even if his mind had been capable of re- 


306 HIS CHARACTER AND SERVICES. 


solving all their mysteries. His temper was not calculated for the 
liberal debates of a free senate. He was better fitted to discipline 
an army than to guide a nation. Educated in a school in which 
subordination is a necessity, and where unquestioning obedience is 
exacted, he was unable to appreciate the rights of deliberative as- 
semblies. He felt, perhaps, that, in the disorganized condition of 
his country, it was needful to control the people by force in order 
to save the remnant of civilization from complete anarchy. But he 
wanted conciliatory manners to seduce the congress into obedience 
to his behests, —and he therefore unfortunately and unwisely 
played the military despot when he should have acted the part of a 
quiet diplomatist. Finding himself, in two years, emperor of 
Mexico, after being, at the commencement of that period, nothing — 
more than commander of a regiment, it may be pardoned if he was 
bewildered by the rapidity of his rise, and if the air he breathed in 
his extraordinary ascent was too etherial for a man of so excitable 

a temperament. 

In every aspect of his character, we must regard him as one al- ~ 
together inadequate to shape the destiny of a nation emerging from — 
the blood and smoke of two revolutions, — a nation whose political 
tendencies towards absolute freedom, were at that time, naturally, 
the positive reverse of his own. 

Death sealed the lips of men who might have clamored for him 
in the course of a few years, when the insubordinate spirit that was 
soon manifested needed as bold an arm as that of Iturbide, in his 
best days, to check or guide it. Public opinion was decidedly op- 
posed to his sudden and cruel slaughter. Mexicans candidly ac- 
knowledged that their country’s independence was owing to him; 
and whilst they admitted that Garza’s zeal for the emperor’s exe- 
cution might have been lawful, they believed that revenge for 
his former disgrace, rather than patriotism, induced the rash and 
ruthless soldier to hasten the death of the noble victim whom for- 
tune had thrown in his lonely path. 


ty et 3g) eee 


afar 


Bi 


CHAPTER V. 
1824 — 1829. 


REVIEW OF THE CONDITION OF MEXICO AND THE FORMATION OF 
PARTIES. — VICEROYAL GOVERNMENT —THE PEOPLE — THE 
ARMY — THE CHURCH. — CONSTITUTION OF 1824. — ECHAVARI 
REVOLTS. — VICTORIA PRESIDENT — ESCOCESSES — YORKINOS 
—REVOLTS CONTINUED. — MONTAYNO — GUERRERO. — GOMEZ 
PEDRAZA PRESIDENT—IS OVERTHROWN. — FEDERALISTS — 
CENTRALISTS —GUERRERO PRESIDENT. — ABOLITION OF SLAVE- 
RY IN MEXICO. 


WeE must pause a moment over the past history of Mexico, 
for the portion we now approach has few of the elements either 
of union or patriotism which characterized the early struggles for 
national independence. ‘The revolutionary war had merited and 
received the commendation of freemen throughout the world. The 
prolonged struggle exhibited powers of endurance, an unceasing 
resolution, and a determination to throw off European thraldom, 
which won the respect of those northern powers on this continent 
who were most concerned in securing to themselves a republican 
neighborhood. But, as soon as the dominion of Spain was 
crushed, the domestic quarrels of Mexico began, and we have 
already shown that in the three parties formed in the first congress, 
were to be found the germs of all the feuds that have since vexed 
the republic or impeded its successful progress towards national 
grandeur. After the country had been so long a battle field, it 
was perhaps difficult immediately to accustom the people to civil 
rule or to free them from the baleful influence which military glory 
is apt to throw round individuals who render important services to 
their country in war. Even in our own union, where the ballot 
box instead of the bayonet has always controled elections, and 
where loyalty to the constitution would blast the effort of ambitious 
men to place a conqueror in power by any other means than that 
of peaceful election, we constantly find how difficult it is to screen 
the people’s eyes from the bewildering glare of military glory. 
What then could we expect from a country in which the self-rely- 
ing, self-ruling, civil idea never existed at any period of its pre- 
vious history? ‘The revolution of the North American colonies 


308 VICEROYAL GOVERNMENT —THE PEOPLE. 


was not designed to obtain liberty, for they were already free; but 
it was excited and successfully pursued in order to prevent the 
burthensome and aggressive impositions of England which would 
have curtailed that freedom, and, reduced us to colonial depen- 
dence as well as royal or ministerial dictation. Mexico, on the con- 
trary, had never been free. Spain regarded the country as a mine 
which was to be diligently wrought, and the masses of the people 
as acclimated serfs whose services were the legitimate perquisites 
of a court and aristocracy beyond the sea. ‘There had been, 
among the kings and viceroys who controled the destinies of New 
Spain, men who were swayed by just and amiable views of colo- 
nial government; but the majority considered Mexico as a specula- 
tion rather than an infant colony whose progressive destiny it was 
their duty to foster with all the care and wisdom of christian magis- 
trates. The minor officials misruled and peculated, as we have 
related in our introductory sketch of the viceroyal government. 
They weré all men of the hour, and, even the viceroys themselves, 
regarded their governments on the American continent as rewards 
for services in Europe, enabling them to secure fortunes with 
which they returned to the Castilian court, forgetful of the Indian 
miner and agriculturist from whose sweat their wealth was coined. 
The Spaniard never identified himself with Mexico. His home 
was on the other side of the Atlantic. Few of the best class 
formed permanent establishments in the viceroyalty; and all of 
them were too much interested in maintaining both the state of 
society and the castes which had been created by the conquerors, 
to spend a thought upon the amelioration of the people. We do 
not desire to blacken, by our commentary, the fame of a great 
nation like that of Spain; yet this dreary but true portrait of 
national selfishness has been so often verified by all the colonial 
historians of America, and especially by Pazo and Zavala, in their 
admirable historical sketches of Castilian misrule, that we deem 
it fair to introduce these palliations of Mexican misconduct since 
the revolution. ! 


The people of New Spain were poor and uneducated, — the 
aristocracy was rich, supercilious, and almost equally illiterate. It 
was a society without a middle ground, — in which gold stood out 
in broad relief against rags. Was such a state of barbaric semi- 
civilization entitled or fitted to emerge at once into republicanism? 


1 Zavala’s Hist. Rev. of Mex. 2 vols.;—and Pazo’s letters on the United Provinces 
of South America. 


THE ARMY—THE CHURCH. 309 


Was it to be imagined that men who had always been controled, 
could learn immediately to control themselves? Was it to be 
believed that the military personages, whose ambition is as pro- 
verbial as it is natural, would voluntarily surrender the power they 
possessed over the masses, and retire to the obscurity and poverty 
of private life when they could enjoy the wealth and influence of 
political control, so long as they maintained their rank in the 
army? ‘This would have been too much to expect from the self- 
denial of creole chiefs; nor is it surprising to behold the people 
themselves looking towards these very men as proper persons to 
consolidate or shape the government they had established. It was 
the most natural thing conceivable to find Iturbide, Guerrero, Bus- 
tamante, Negrete, Bravo, Santa Anna, Paredes, and the whole host 
of revolutionary heroes succeeding each other in power, either con- 
stitutionally or by violence. ‘The people knew no others. ‘The 
military idea, — military success, — a name won in action, and re- 
peated from lip to lip until the traditionary sound became a house- 
hold word among the herdsmen, rancheros, vaqueros and Indians, 
—these were the sources of Mexican renown or popularity, and the 
appropriate objects of political reward and confidence. What in- 
dividual among the four or five millions of Indians knew anything 
of the statesmen of their country who had never mixed in the 
revolutionary war or in the domestic brawls constantly occurring. 
There were no gazettes to spread their fame or merit, and even if 
there had been, the people were unable to buy or peruse them. 
Among the mixed breeds, and lower class of creoles, an equal de- 
gree of ignorance prevailed ;—and thus, from the first epoch of in- 
dependence, the Propie ceased to be a true republican tribunal in 
Mexico, while the city was surrendered as the battle field of all the 
political aspirants who had won reputations in the camp which 
were to serve them for other purposes in the capital. By this 
means the army rose to immediate significance and became the 
general arbiter in all political controversies. Nor was the church, 
—that other overshadowing influence in all countries in which re- 
ligion and the state are combined,—a silent spectator in the 
division of national power. The Roman Hierarchy, a large land- 
holder, — as will be hereafter seen in our statistical view of the 
country, —had much at stake in Mexico, besides the mere au- 
thority which so powerful a body is always anxious to maintain 
over the consciences of the multitude. The church was, thus, a 

political element of great strength; and, combined with the army, 
created and sustained an important party, which has been untiring 

40 


310 CONSTITUTION OF 1824— ECHAVARI REVOLTS. 


in its efforts to support centralism, as the true political principle of 
Mexican government. 


On the 4th of October, 1824, a federal constitution, framed 
partly upon the model of the constitution of the United States, with 
some grafts from the Spanish constitution, was adopted by Con- 
gress ; and, by it, the territory comprehended in the old viceroyalty 
of New Spain, the Captaincy General of Yucatan, the commandan- 
cies of the eastern and western Internal Provinces, Upper and 
Lower California, with the lands and isles adjacent in both seas, 
were placed under the protection of this organic law. The religion 
of the Mexican nation was declared to be, in perpetuity, the 
Catholic Apostolic Roman; and the nation pledged its protection, 
at the same time prohibiting the exercise of any other ! 

Previous, however, to these constitutional enactments the coun- 
try had not been entirely quiet, for as early as January of this year, 
General Echavari, who occupied the state of Puebla, raised the 
standard of revolt against the Triumvirate. This seditious move- 
ment was soon suppressed by the staunch old warrior, Guerrero, 
who seized and bore the insurgent chief to the capital as a prisoner. 
Another insurrection, occurred not long after in Cuernavaca, which 
was also quelled by Guerrero. Both of these outbreaks were 
caused by the centralists, who strove to put down by violence the 
popular desire for the federal system. Instead of destroying the 
favorite charter, however, they only served to cement the sections, 
who sustained liberal doctrines in the different provinces or states 
of the nation, and finally, aided materially in enforcing the adop- 
tion of the federal system. 

Another insurrection occurred in the city of Mexico, growing 
out of the old and national animosity between the creoles and the 
European Spaniards. The expulsion of the latter from all public 
employments was demanded by the creoles of the capital, backed 
by the garrison commanded by Colonels Lobato and Staboli. The 
revolt was suppressed at the moment; but it was deemed advisable 
to conciliate feeling in regard to the capita foreigners ; and, 
accordingly, changes were made in the departments, in which the 
offices were given to native Mexicans, whilst the Spaniards were 
allowed a pension for life of one-third of their pay. At this period, 
moreover, the supreme executive power was altered, and Nicolas 
Bravo, Vicente Guerrero, and Miguel Dominguez, were appointed 
to contral public affairs until a president was elected under the 
new constitution. 


VICTORIA PRESIDENT — ESCOCESSES — YORKINOS. ol 


Early in 1825, the general congress assembled in the city of 
Mexico. Guadalupe Victoria was declared president, and Nicolas 
Bravo vice president. The national finances were recruited by a 
loan from England; and a legislative effort was made to narrow 
_ the influence of the priesthood, according to the just limits it should 
occupy in a republic. 

All Spanish America had been in a ferment for several years, 
and the power of Castile was forever broken on this continent. 
_ Peru, as well as Mexico, had cast off the bonds of dependence, 
for the brilliant battle of Ayacucho rescued the republican banner 
from the danger with which for a while it was menaced. The 
European forces, had never been really formidable, except for their 
superior discipline and control under royalist leaders, — but they 
were now driven out of the heart of the continent, — whilst the 
few pertinacious troops and generals who still remained, were con- 
fined to the coasts of Mexico, Puru, and Chili, where they clung 
to the fortress of San Juan de Ulua, the castle of Callao, and the 
strongholds of Chiloe. 

Victoria was sworn into office on the 15th of April, 1825. 
Several foreign nations had already recognized the independence 
of Mexico, or soon hastened to do so; for all were eager to grasp 
a share of the commerce and mines which they imagined had been 
so profitable to Spain. The British, especially, who had become 
holders of Mexican bonds, were particularly desirous to open com- 
mercial intercourse and to guard it by international treaties. 

In the winter of 1826, it was discovered, by the discussions in 
congress of projects for their suppression, that the party leaders, 
fearing an open attempt to conduct their unconstitutional machina- 
tions, had sought the concealment of masonic institutions in which 
they might foster their antagonistic schemes. The rival lodges 
were designated as Escocesses and Yorkinos, the former numbering 
among its members the vice president Nicolas Bravo, Gomez Pe- 
draza, and José Montayno, while the Yorkinos boasted of Generals 
Victoria, Santa Anna, Guerrero, Lorenzo de Zavala, and Busta- 
mante. ‘The adherents of the Escocesses were said to be in favor 
of a limited monarchy with a Spanish prince at its head; but the 
Yorkinos maintained the supremacy of the constitution and declared 
themselves hostile to all movements of a central character. The 
latter party was, by far, the most numerous. The intelligent libe- 
rals of all classes sustained it; yet its leaders had to contend with 
the dignitaries of the church, the opulent agriculturists, land holders 
and miners, and many of the higher officers of the army whose 


oo REVOLTS CONTINUED — MONTAYNO — GUERRERO. 


names had been identified with the early struggles of the indepen- 
dents against the Spaniards. 

These party discussions, mainly excited by the personal ambi- 
tions of the disputants, which were carried on not only openly in 
congress, but secretly in the lodges, absorbed for a long time, the 
entire attention of the selfish but intelligent persons who should 
have forgotten themselves in the holy purpose of consolidating the 
free and republican principles of the constitution of 1824. The 
result of this personal warfare was soon exhibited in the total neg- 
lect of popular interests, so far as they were to be fostered or ad- 
vanced by the action of congress. The states, however, were in 
some degree, free from these internecine contests; for the boldest 
of the various leaders, and the most ambitious aspirants for power, 
had left the provinces to settle their quarrels in the capital. This 
was fortunate for the country, inasmuch as the states were in some 
measure recompensed by their own care of the various domestic 
industrial interests for the neglect they suffered at the hands of 
national legislators. 

At the close of 1827, Colonel José Montayno, a member of the 
Escocesses, proclaimed, in Otumba, the plan which in the history 
of Mexican pronunciamientos, or revolts, is known by the name of 
this leader. Another attempt of a similar character had been pre- 
viously made, against the federative system and in favor of central- 
ism, by Padre Arénas; but both of these outbreaks were not con- 
sidered dangerous, until Bravo denounced president Victoria for his 
union with the Yorkinos, and, taking arms against the government, 
joined the rebels in Tulancingo, where he declared himself in favor 
of the central plan of Montayno. The country was aroused. The 
insurgents appeared in great strength. The army exhibited de- 
cided symptoms of favor towards the revolted party; and the church 
strengthened the elements of discontent by its secret influence with 
the people. Such was the revolutionary state of Mexico, when the 
patriot Guerrero was once more summoned by the executive to use 
his energetic efforts in quelling the insurrection. Nor was he un- 
successful in his loyal endeavors to support the constitution. As 
soon as he marched against the insurgents, they dispersed through- 
out the country; so that, without bloodshed, he was enabled to 
crush the revolt and save the nation from the civil war. Thus, 
amid the embittered quarrels of parties, who had actually designed 
to transfer their contests from congress and lodges to the field of 
battle, terminated the administration of Guadalupe Victoria, the 
first president of Mexico. His successor, Gomez Pedraza, the 


GOMEZ PEDRAZA PRESIDENT—IS OVERTHROWN. als 


candidate of the Escocesses, was elected by a majority of but two 
yotes over his competitor, Guerrero, the representative of the libe- 
ral Yorkinos. 


These internal discontents of Mexico began to inspire the Span- 
ish court with hope that its estranged colony would be induced, or 
perhaps easily compelled, after a short time, to return to its alle- 
giance; and, accordingly, it was soon understood in Mexico, even 
during Victoria’s administration, that active efforts were making in 
Cuba to raise an adequate force for another attempt upon the re- 
public. This, for a moment, restrained the: fraternal hands raised 
against each other within the limits of Mexico, and forced all par- 
ties to unite against the common danger from abroad. Suitable 
measures were taken to guard the coasts where an attack was most. 
imminent, and it was the good fortune of the government to secure 
the services of Commodore Porter, a distinguished ofhcer of the 
United States Navy, who commanded the Mexican squadron most 
effectively for the protection of the shores along the gulf, and took 
a number of Spanish vessels, even in the ports of Cuba, some of 
which were laden with large and costly cargoes. 

The success of the centralist Pedraza over the federalist Guerrero, 
a man whose name and reputation were scarcely less dear to the 
genuine republicans than that of Guadalupe Victoria, — was not 
calculated to heal the animosities of the two factions, especially, as 
the scant majority of two votes had placed the Escoces partizan in the 
presidential chair. The defeated candidate and his incensed com- 
panions of the liberal lodge, did not exhibit upon this occasion that 
loyal obedience to constitutional law, which should have taught 
them that the first duty of a republican is to conceal his mortifica- 
tion at a political defeat and to bow reverentially to the lawful de- 
cision of a majority. It is a subject of deep regret that the first 

bold and successful attack upon the organic law of Mexico was 
made by the federalists. ‘They may have deemed it their duty to 
prevent their unreliable competitors from controling the destinies 
of Mexico even for a moment under the sanction of the constitu- 
tion; but there can be no doubt that they should have waited until 
acts, instead of suspicions or fears, entitled them to exercise their 
right of impeachment under the constitution. In an unregulated, 
military nation, such as Mexico was at that period, men do not 
pause for the slow operations of law when there is a personal or a 
party quarrel in question. The hot blood of the impetuous, tropical 
region, combines with the active intellectual temperament of the 


314 FEDERALISTS — CENTRALISTS — GUERRERO PRESIDENT. 


people, and laws and constitutions are equally disregarded under 
_ the impulse of passion or interest. Such was the case in the pre- 
sent juncture. The Yorkinos had been outvoted lawfully, accord- 
ing to the solemn record of congress, yet they resolved not to 
submit; and, accordingly, Lorenzo de Zavala, the Grand Master 
of their lodge, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was then a 
professed federalist, in conjunction with the defeated candidate 
Guerrero and Generals Montezuma and Lobato, determined to 
prevent Pedraza from occupying the chair of state. Santa Anna, 
who now appeared prominently on the stage, was the chief agitator 
in the scheme, and being in garrison at Jalapa, in the autumn of 
1828, pronounced against the chief magistrate elect, and denounced 
his nomination as ‘‘illegal, fraudulent and unconstitutional.’ The 
movement was popular, for the people were in fact friendly to 
Guerrero. The prejudices of the native or creole party against the 
Spaniards and their supposed defenders the Escocesses, were 
studiously fomented in the capital; and, on the 4th of December, 
the pronunciamiento of the Accordada, in the capital, seconded the 
sedition of Santa Anna in the provinces. By this time the arch 
conspirator in this drama had reached the metropolis and labored 
to control the elements of disorder which were at hand to support 
his favorite Guerrero. The defenceless Spaniards were relentlessly 
assailed by the infuriate mob which was let loose upon them by the 
insurgent chiefs. Guerrero was in the field in person at the head of 
the Yorkinos. ‘The Parian in the capital, and the dwellings of many 
of the noted Escocesses were attacked and pillaged, and for some 
time the city was given up to anarchy and bloodshed. Pedraza, 
who still fulfilled the functions of minister of war previous to his 
inauguration, fled from the official post which he abandoned to his 
rival Santa Anna; and on the Ist of January, 1829, congress, — 
reversing its former act, — declared Guerrero to have been duly 
elected president of the republic! General Bustamante was chosen 
vice president, and the government again resumed its operation 
under the federal system of 1824. 


Norre.— Although a masked Indian slavery or peonage, is permitted and en- 
couraged in Mexico, African slavery is prohibited by positive enactments:as well 
as by the constitution itself. But as it may interest the reader to know the Mexi- 
can enactments relative to negroes, on this subject, the 2 ee documents are 
subjoined for reference : — 


ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
The President of the Mexican United States to the Inhabitants of the Republic. 
Be 1r KNownN— That, being desirous to signalize the anniversary of independence, 
in the year 1829, by an act of national justice and beneficence, which may redound 


ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN MEXICO. 315 


to the advantage and support of so inestimable a good; which may further insure 
the public tranquillity; which may tend to the aggrandisement of the republic, and 
may reinstate an unfortunate portion of its inhabitants in the sacred rights which 
nature gave to them, and the nation should protect by wise and just laws, con- 
formably with the dispositions of the thirtieth article of the constituent act, employ- 
ing the extrordinary faculties which have been conceded to me, I have resolved to 
decree — 

1. Slavery is and shall remain abolished in the republic. 

2. In consequence, those who have hitherto been regarded as slaves, are free. 

3. Whensoever the condition of the treasury shall permit, the owners of the 
slaves shall be indemnified according to the terms which the law may dispose. 


GuERRERO. 
Mexico, Sept. 15, 1829. 


MEXICAN LAW FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE REPUBLIC. 


Art. 1.— Slavery is abolished, without any exception, throughout the whole 
republic. 

2. The owners of the slaves manumitted by the present law, or by the decree of 
September 15, 1829, shall be indemnified for their interests in them, to be estimated 
according to the proofs which may be presented of their personal qualities; to 
which effect, one appraiser shall be appointed by the commissary general, or the 
person performing his duties, and another by the owner; and, in case of disagree- 
ment, a third, who shall be appointed by the respective constitutional alcalde; and 
from the decision thus made, there shall be no appeal. The indemnification men- 
_ tioned in this article shall not be extended to the colonists of Texas, who may have 
taken part in the revolution in that department. 

3. The owners to whom the original documents drawn up with regard to the 
‘proofs mentioned in the preceding article, shall be delivered gratis — shall them- 
selves present them to the supreme government, which will authorise the general 
treasury to issue to them the corresponding orders for the amount of their respec- 
tive interests. 

4. The payment of the said orders shall be made in the manner which may seem 
most equitable to the government, with the view of reconciling the rights of indi- 
viduals with the actual state of the public finances. 

April 5, 1837. 


The Constitution of 1843, or Bases organicas de la Republica Mejicana, of that year, 
declares that: “ No one is a slave in the terrilory of the nation, and that any slave who 
may be introduced, shall be considered free and remain under the protection of the 
laws.” —Title 2d. 

The Constitution of 1847—which, in fact, is the old Federal Constitution of 1824 
—does not réenact this clause ; but, in the Acta de Reformas annexed to it in 1847, 
declares, “that every Mexican, either by birth or naturalization, who has attained 
the age of twenty years, who possesses the means of an honest livelihood, and who 
has not been condemned by legal process to any infamous punishment, is a citizen 
of the United Mexican States.”— Acta de Reformas, Article 1. ‘‘In order to secure 
the rights of man which the Constitution recognizes, a law shall fix the guaranties 
of liberty, security, property and equality, which all the inhabitants of the republic enjoy, 
and shall establish the means requisite to make them effective.”—Jd. Article 5. The 
third article provides that “‘ the exercise of the rights of citizenship are suspended by 
habitual intemperance; by professional gambling or vagabondage; by religious or 
' ders; by legal interdict in virtue of trial for those crimes which forfeit citizenship, 
and by refusal to fulfil public duties imposed by popular nomination” (nombramientc 
popular.) 


CHAPTER’ VE. 
1829 — 1843. 


CONSPIRACY AGAINST GUERRERO BY BUSTAMANTE — GUERRERO 
BETRAYED AND SHOT. — ANECDOTE — REVOLT UNDER SANTA 
ANNA — HE RESTORES PEDRAZA AND BECOMES PRESIDENT. — 
GOMEZ FARIAS DEPOSED — CHURCH. — CENTRAL CONSTITUTION 
oF 1836— SANTA ANNA—HIS TEXAN DISGRACE — MEXIA. — 
BUSTAMANTE PRESIDENT. — FRENCH AT VERA CRUZ. — RE- 
VOLTS IN THE NORTH AND IN THE CAPITAL. — BUSTAMANTE 
DEPOSED — SANTA ANNA PRESIDENT. 


VIOLENT as was the conduct of the pretended liberals in over- 
throwing their rivals the Escocesses, and firmly as it may be 
supposed such a band was cemented in opposition to the machina- 
tion of a bold monarchical party, we, nevertheless, find that treason 
existed in the hearts of the conspirators against the patriot hero 
whom they had used in their usurpation of the presidency. Scarce- 
ly had Guerrero been ‘seated in the chair of state when it became 
known that there was a conspiracy to displace him. He had been 
induced by the condition of the country, and by the bad advice of 
his enemies to assume the authority of dictator. This power, he 
alleged, was exercised only for the suppression of the intriguing 
Escocesses; but its continued exercise served as a pretext at least, 
for the vice president, General Bustamante, to place himself at the 
head of a republican division and pronounce against the president 
he had so recently contributed to place in power. ‘The executive 
commanded Santa Anna to advance against the assailants ; but this 
chief, at first, feebly opposed the insurgents, and, finally, frater- 
nizing with Bustamante, marched on the capital whence they drove 
Guerrero and his partisans to Valladolid in Michoacan. Here the 
dethroned dictator organized a government, whilst the usurping 
vice president, Bustamante, assumed the reins in the capital. In 
Michoacan, Guerrero, who was well known and loved for his 
revolutionary enterprises in the west of Mexico, found no difficulty 
in recruiting a force with which he hoped to regain his executive 
post. Congress was divided in opinion between the rival factions 
of the liberalists, and the republic was shaken by the continual 


GUERRERO BETRAYED AND SHOT. ole 


strife, until Bustamante despatched a powerful division against 
Guerrero, which defeated, and dispersed his army. This was the 
conclusion of that successful warrior’s career. He was a good 
soldier but a miserable statesman. His private character and 
natural disposition are represented, by those who knew him best, 
to have been irreproachable; yet he was fitted alone for the early 
struggles of Mexico in the field, and was so ignorant of the admin- 
istrative functions needed in his country at such a period, that it is 
not surprising to find he had been used as a tool, and cast aside 
when the service for which his intriguing coadjutors required him 
was performed. His historical popularity and character rendered 
him available for a reckless party in overthrowing a constitutional 
election ; and, even when beaten by the new usurper, and with 
scarcely the shadow of a party in the nation, it was still feared 
that his ancient usefulness in the wars of independence, might 
render him again the nucleus of political discontent. Accordingly, 
the pursuit of Guerrero was not abandoned when his army fled. 
The west coast was watched by the myrmidons of the usurpers, 
and the war-worn hero was finally betrayed on board a vessel by a | 
spy, where he was arrested for bearing arms against the govern- 
ment of which he was the real head, according to the solemn 
decision of congress! In February, 1831, a court martial, ordered 
by General Montezuma tried him for this pretended crime. His 
sentence was, of course, known as soon as his judges were named; 
and, thus, another chief of the revolutionary war was rewarded by 
death for his patriotic services. We cannot regard this act of 
Bustamante and Santa Anna, except as a deliberate murder for 
which they richly deserve the condemnation of impartial history, 
even if they had no other crimes to answer at the bar of God 
and their country. 

Whilst these internal contests were agitating the heart of Mexico, 
an expedition had been fitted out at Havana composed of four 
thousand troops commanded by Barradas, designed to invade the 
lost colony and restore it to. the Spanish crown. The accounts 
given of this force and its condition when landed at Tampico, vary 
according to the partizans by whom they are written; but there is 
reason to believe that the Spanish troops were so weakened by 
disease and losses in the summer of 1830, that when Santa Anna 
and a French officer, — Colonel Woll— attacked them in the 
month of September, they fell an easy prey into the hands of the 
Mexicans. Santa Anna, however, with his usual talent for such 


composition, magnified the defeat into a magnificent conquest. He 
4] 


318 ANECDOTE — REVOLT UNDER SANTA ANNA. 


was hailed as the victor who broke the last link between Spain and 
her viceroyalty. Pompous bulletins and despatches were publish- 
ed in the papers; and the commander-in-chief returned to the 
capital, covered with honors, as the saviour of the republic. 

There is an anecdote connected with the final expulsion of the 
Spaniards from Mexico, which deserves to be recorded as it exhib- 
its a fact which superstitious persons might conceive to be the 
avenging decree of retributive providence. Dona Isabel Monte- 
zuma, the eldest daughter of the unfortunate Emperor had been 
married to his successor on the Aztec throne, and, after his wretch- 
ed death, was united to various distinguished Spaniards, the last 
of whom was Juan Andrade, ancestor of the Andrade Montezumas 
and Counts of Mirayalle. General Miguel Barragan, who after- 
wards became president ad interim of Mexico, and to whom the 
castle of San Juan de Ulua was surrendered by the European forces 
—was married to Manuela Trebuesta y Casasoia, daughter of the 
last Count of Miravalle, and it is thus a singular coincidence that 
the husband of a lady who was the legitimate descendant of Mon- 
tezuma, should have been destined to receive the keys of the last 
stronghold on which the Spanish banner floated on this continent! ? 


By intrigue and victories Santa Anna had acquired so much 
popular renown throughout the country and with the army that he 
found the time was arriving when he might safely avail himself of 
his old and recent services against Iturbide and Barradas. Under 
the influence of his machinations Bustamante began to fail in popu- 
lar estimation. He was spoken of as a tyrant; his administration 
was characterized as inauspicious ; and the public mind was gradu- 
ally prepared for an outbreak in 1832. Santa Anna, who had, in 
fact, placed and sustained Bustamante in power, was, in reality, 
the instigator of this revolt. The ambitious chief, first of all 
issued his pronunciamiento against the ministry of the president, 
and then, shortly after, against that functionary himself. But Bus- 
tamante, a man of nerve and capacity, was not to be destroyed as 
easily as his victim, Guerrero. He threw himself at the head of 
his loyal troops and encountering the rebels at Tolomi routed them 
completely. Santa Anna, therefore, retired to Vera Cruz, and, 
strengthening his forces from some of the other states, declared 
himself in favor of the restoration of the constitutional president 
Pedraza, whom he had previously driven out of Mexico. As 
Bustamante advanced towards the coast his army melted away. 


1 Alaman Disertaciones, vol. 1, p. 219. 


HE RESTORES PEDRAZA AND BECOMES PRESIDENT. 319 


The country was opposed to him. He was wise enough to per- 
ceive that his usurped power was lost; and prudently entered into 
a pacific convention with Santa Anna at Zavaleta in December, 
1832. The successful insurgent immediately despatched a vessel] 
for the banished Pedraza, and brought him back to the capital to 
serve out the remaining three months of his unexpired admin- 
istration ! 

The object of Santa Anna in restoring Pedraza was not to sus- 
tain any one of the old parties which had now become strangely 
mingled and confused by the factions or ambitions of all the 
leaders. His main design was to secure the services and influence 
of the centralists, as far as they were yet available, in controling 
his election to the presidency upon which he had fixed his heart. 
On the 16th of May, 1833, he reached the goal of his ambition.! 


1The following letter from Santa Anna to a distinguished foreigner, will afford 
the reader a specimen of his personal modesty and political humility. The individ- 
ual to whom it was written, was afterwards expelled by Santa Anna from the re- 
public during his presidency, after having been invited by him to the country: 

‘Vera Cruz, October 11th, 1831. 

“My Esteemep Frienp: — I have the pleasure to answer your favor of the 5th 
ultimo, by which | perceive that my letter of the 9th of April last, came to hand. 
I have received the prospectus of the ‘‘ Foreign College” you contemplate to es- 
tablish, which not only meets with my entire approbation, but, considering your 
talents and uncommon acquirements, I congratulate you on employing them in a 
manner so generally useful, and personally honorable. I thank you cordially for 
_ the news and observations you have had the kindness to communicate to me, and 
both make me desire the continuation of your esteemed epistles. Retired as I am, 
on my farm, and there exclusively devoted to the cultivation and improvement of my small 
estate, I cannot reply, as I desire, to the news with which you have favored me. But, even 
in that retirement, and though separated from the arena of politics, I could never 
view with indifference any discredit thrown on my country, nor any thing which 
might, in the smallest degree, possess that tendency. We enjoy at present peace 
and tranquillity, and I do not know of any other question of public interest now in 
agitation, than the approaching elections of President and Vice President. When 
that period shall arrive, should I obtain a majority of suffrages, | am ready to accept 
the honor, and to sacrifice, for the benefit of the nation my repose and the charms 
of private life. My fixed system is to be called (ser llamado), resembling in this a 
modest maid (modesta doncella), who rather expects to be desired, than to show herself to 
be desiring. 1 think that my position justifies me in this respect. Nevertheless, as 
what is written in a foreign country has much influence at home, especially among 
us, in your city I think it proper to make a great step on this subject ; and by fixing the 
true aspect, in which such or such services should be regarded, as respects the 
various candidates, one could undoubtedly contribute to fix here public opinion, whick 
is at present extremely wavering and uncertain. Of course, this is the peculiar pro- 
vince of the friends of Mexico; and as well by this title, as on account of the ac- 
quirements and instruction you possess, I know of no one better qualified than yourself 
to execute such a benevolent undertaking. i * = = ‘ 

*‘] hope you will favor me from time to time with information, which will ai- 
ways give satisfaction to your true friend and servant, who kisses your hands.” 

‘Antonio Lopez pe Santa ANNA.” 


320 GOMEZ FARIAS DEPOSED — CHURCH. 


The congress of 1834 was unquestionably federal republican in 
its character, and Santa Anna seemed to be perfectly in accord 
with his vice presidential compeer, Gomez Farias. But the 
church, — warned by a bill introduced into congress the previous 
year by Zavala, by which he aimed a blow at the temporalities of 
the spiritual lords, —did not remain contented spectators while 
the power reposed in the hands of his federal partizans. The 
popular representatives were accordingly approached by skilful 
emissaries, and it was soon found that the centralists were strongly 
represented in a body hitherto regarded as altogether republican. 
It is charged in Mexico, that bribery was freely resorted to; and, 
when the solicitations became sufficiently powerful, even the in- 
flexible patriotism of Santa Anna yielded, though the vice presi- 
dent Farias, remained incorruptible. 

On the 13th of May, 1834, the president suddenly and unwar- 
rantably dissolved congress, and maintained his arbitrary decree 
and power by the army, which was entirely at his service. In the 
following year, Gomez Farias was deposed from the vice presidency 
by the venal congress, and Barragan raised to the vacant post. 
The militia was disarmed, the central forces strengthened, and the 
people placed entirely at the mercy of the executive and his min- 
ions, who completed the destruction of the constitution of 1824 by 
blotting it from the statute book of Mexico. 

Puebla, Jalisco, Oaxaca, parts of Mexico, Zacatecas and Texas 
revolted against this assumption of the centralists, though they were 
finally not able to maintain absolutely their free stand against the 
dictator. Zacatecas and Texas, alone, presented a formidable 
aspect to Santa Anna, who was, nevertheless, too strong and _ skil- 
ful for the ill regulated forces of the former state. The victorious 
troops entered the rebellious capital with savage fury; and, after 
committing the most disgusting acts of brutality and violence 
against all classes and sexes, they disarmed the citizens entirely 
and placed a military governor over the province. In Coahuila 
and Texas, symptoms of discontent were far more important, for 
the federalists met at Monclova, and, after electing Agustin Viesca 
governor, defied the opposite faction by which a military officer 
had been assigned to perform the executive duties of the state. 
General Cos, however, soon dispersed the legislature by violence 
and imprisoned the governor and his companions whom he ar- 
rested as they were hastening to cross the Rio Grande. These 
evil doings were regarded sorrowfully but sternly by the North 
Americans who had flocked to Texas, under the sanctions and as- 


CENTRAL CONSTITUTION OF 1836 — SANTA ANNA. O21 


surances of the federal constitution, and they resolved not to coun- 
tenance the usurpation of their unquestionable rights. 

Such was the state of affairs in the Mexican Republic when 
the Puan oF ToLtuca was issued, by which the federal constitu- 
tion was absolutely abolished, and the principles of a consolidated 
central government fully announced. Previous to this, however, 
a pronunciamiento had been made by a certain Escalada at Morelia, 
in favor of the fueros, or especial privileges and rights of the 
church and army. This outbreak was, of course, central in its 
character ; whilst another ferment in Cuautla had been productive 
of Santa Anna’s nomination as dictator, an office which he promptly 
refused to accept. 

* The Plan of Toluca was unquestionably favored by Santa Anna 
who had gone over to the centralists. It was a scheme designed 
to test national feeling and to prepare the people for the overthrow 
of state governments. ‘The supreme power was vested by it in the 
executive and national congress; and the states were changed 
into departments under the command of military governors, who 
were responsible for their trust to the chief national authorities in- 

stead of the people. Such was the Central Constitution of 1836. 

It is quite probable that Santa Anna’s prudent care of himself 
and his popularity, as well as his military patriotism induced him 
to leave the government in the hands of the vice president Barra- 
gan whilst the new constitution was under discussion, and to lead 
the Mexican troops, personally, against the revolted Texans, who 
had never desisted from open hostility to the central usurpations. 
But as the history of that luckless expedition is to be recounted 
elsewhere in this volume, we shall content ourselves with simply 
recording the fact that on the 21st of April, 1836, the president 
and his army were completely routed by General Houston and the 
Texans ; and, that instead of returning to the metropolis crowned 
with glory, as he had done from the capture of Barradas, Santa 
Anna owed his life to the generosity of the Texan insurgents 
whose companions in arms had recently been butchered by his 
orders at Goliad and San Antonio de Bejar. } 

During Santa Anna’s absence, vice president Barragan filled the 
executive office up to the time of his death, when he was succeeded 
by Coro, until the return from France of Bustamante, who had 
been elected president under the new central constituéjon of 1836. 
In the following year Santa Anna was sent back to Mexico in a 


_ 1 See Gen. Waddy Thompson’s Recollections of Mexico, p. 69, for Sarita Anna's 
wretched vindication of these sanguinary deeds. 


S300 HIS TEXAN DISGRACE — MEXIA. 


vessel of the United States government. But he was a disgraced 
man in the nation’s eyes. He returned to his hacienda of Manga de 
Clavo, and burying himself for a while in obscurity, was screened 
from the open manifestation of popular odium. Here he lurked 
until the brilliant attempt was made to disenthral his country by 
Mexia, in 1838. Demanding, once more, the privilege of leading 
the army, he was entrusted with its command, and, encountering 
the defender of federation in the neighborhood of Puebla, he gave 
him battle immediately. Mexia lost the day ; and, with brief time 
for shrift or communication with his family, he was condemned by 
a drum-head court martial and shot upon the field of battle. This 
was a severe doom; but the personal animosity between the com- 
manders was veil unrelenting, for when the sentence was an- 
nounced to the brave but rash Mexia, he promptly and firmly de- 
clared that Santa Anna was right to execute him on the spot, 
inasmuch. as he would not have granted the usurper half the time 
that elapsed since his capture, had it been his ie to prove 
victorious ! 

Soon after the accession of Bustamante there had Beth gritos in 
favor of federation and Gomez Farias, who was, at that period, 
imprisoned ; but these trifling outbreaks were merely local and 
easily suppressed by Pedraza and Rodriguez. 

In the winter of 1838, however, Mexico was more severely 
threatened from abroad than she had recently been by her internal 
discords. It was at this time that a French fleet appeared at Vera 
Cruz, under the orders of Admiral Baudin, to demand satisfaction 
for injuries to French subjects, and unsettled pecuniary claims which 
had been long and unavailingly subjects of diplomacy. Distracted 
for years by internal broils that paralized the industry of the country 
ever since the outbreak of the revolution, Mexico was in no condi- 
tion to respond promptly to demands for money. But national 
pride forbade the idea of surrendering without a blow. The mili- 
tary resources of the country and of the Castle of San Juan de 
Ulua, were, accordingly, mustered with due celerity, and the as- 
sailed department of Vera Cruz entrusted to the defence of Santa 
Anna, whose fame had been somewhat refreshed by his victory 
over Mexia. Meanwhile the French fleet kept up a stringent 
blockade of Vera Cruz, and still more crippled the commercial 
revenues of Mexico by cutting off the greater part of its most valu- 
able trade. Finding, however, that neither the blockade nor ad- 
ditional diplomacy would induce the stubborn government to ac- 
cede to terms which the Mexicans knew would finally be forced 


BUSTAMANTE PBESIDENT— FRENCH AT VERA CRUZ. 323 


on them, the French squadron attacked the city with forces landed 
from the vessels, whilst they assailed the redoubtable castle with 
three frigates, a corvette and two bomb vessels, whence, during an 
action of six hours, they threw three hundred and two shells, one 
hundred and seventy-seven paixhan, and seven thousand seven hun- 
dred and seventy-one solid shot. The assaults upon the town were 
not so successful as those on the castle, where the explosion of a 
magazine forced the Mexicans to surrender. The troops that had 
been landed were not numerous enough to hold the advantages they 
gained; and it was in gallantly repulsing a storming party at the 
gates of the city, that Santa Anna lost a leg by a parting shot from 
a small piece of ordnance as the French retreated on the quay to 
their boats. 

The capture of the castle, however, placed the city at the mercy 
of the French, and the Mexicans were soon induced to enter into 
satisfactory stipulations for the adjustment of all debts and dif- 
ficulties. 


In 1839, General Canales fomented a revolt in some of the 
the north-eastern departments. The proposal of this insurgent was 
to form a republican confederation of Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Du- 
rango, which three states or departments, he designed should adopt 
for themselves the federal constitution of 1824, and, assuming the 
title of the independent ‘‘ Republic of the Rio Grande,” should 
pledge themselves to co-operate with Texas against Bustamante 
and the centralists. An alliance was entered into with Texas to 
that effect, and an expedition of united Texans and Republicans of 
the Rio Grande, was set on foot to occupy Coahuila; but at the 
appearance of General Arista in the field early in 1840, and after 
an action in which the combined forces were defeated, Canales left 
the discomfitted Texans to seek safety by hastening back to their 
own territory. 

The administration of Bustamante was sorely tried by foreign 
and domestic broils, for, whilst Texas and the Republic of the Rio 
Grande were assailing him in the north, the federalists attacked 
him in the capital, and the Yucatecos revolted in the south. This 
last outbreak was not quelled as easily as the rebellion in the north; 
nor was it, in fact, until long afterwards during another adminis- 
tration, that the people of the Peninsula were again induced to 
return to their allegiance. Bustamante seems to have vexed the 
Yucatecos by unwise interference in the commercial and industrial 
interests of the country. The revolt was temporarily successful ; 


324 REVOLTS IN THE NORTH AND IN THE CAPITAL.” 


On the 31st of March, 1841, a constitution was proclaimed in 
Yucatan, which erected it into a free and sovereign state, and ex- 
empted the people from many burdens as well as the odious intoler- 
ance of all other religions except the Roman Catholic, that had 
been imposed by both the federal constitution of 1824 and the cen- 
tral one of 1836. 


The discontent with Bustamante’s administration, arising chiefly 
from a consumption duty of 15 per cent. which had been imposed 
by congress, was now well spread throughout the republic. The 
pronunciamiento of Urrea on the 15th of July, 1840, at the palace 
of Mexico was mainly an effort of the federalists to put down vio- 
lently the constitution of 1836; and although the insurgents had 
possession, at one period, of the person of the president, yet the 
revolt was easily suppressed by Valencia and his faithful troops in 
the capital. 

But, a year later, the revolutionary spirit had ripened into readi- 
ness for successful action. We have reason to believe that the 
most extensive combinations were made by active agents in all 
parts of Mexico to ensure the downfall of Bustamante and the 
elevation of Santa Anna. Accordingly, in August, 1841, a pro- 
nunciamiento of General Paredes, in Guadalajara, was speedily 
responded to by Valencia and Lombardini in the capital, and by ~ 
Santa Anna himself at Vera Cruz. But the outbreak was not con- 
fined merely to proclamations or the adhesion of military garrisons; 
for a large body of troops and citizens continued loyal to the pre- 
sident and resolved to sustain the government in the capital. This 
fierce fidelity to the constitution on the one hand, and _ bitter 
hostility to the chief magistrate on the other, resulted in one of the 
most sanguinary conflicts that had taken place in Mexico since the 
early days of independence. For a whole month the contest was 
carried on with balls and grape shot in the streets of Mexico, 
whilst the rebels, who held the citadel outside the city, finished the 
shameless drama, by throwing a shower of bombs into the metro- 
polis, shattermg the houses, and involving innocent and guilty, 
citizens, strangers, combatants and non-combatants, in a common 
fate. This cowardly assault under the orders of Valencia, was 
made solely with the view of forcing the citizens, who were uncon- 
cerned in the quarrel between the factions, into insisting upon the 
surrender of Mexico, in order to save their town and families from 
destruction. There was a faint show of military manceuvres in the 
fields adjoining the city; but the troops on both sides shrank from 


BUSTAMANTE DEPOSED — SANTA ANNA PRESIDENT. 325 


battle when they were removed from the protecting shelter of walls 
and houses. At length, the intervention of Mexican citizens 
who were most interested in the cessation of hostilities, produced 
an arrangement between the belligerants at Estanzuela near the 
capital, and, finally, the Puan or Tacuspaya was agreed on by 
the chiefs — as a substitute for the constitution of 1836. By the 
seventh article of this document, Santa Anna was effectually invest- 
ed with dictatorial powers until a new constitution was formed. 

The Plan of T'acubaya provided that a congress should be con- 
vened, in 1842, to form a new constitution, and in June, a body of 
patriotic citizens, chosen by the people, assembled for that purpose 
in the metropolis. Santa Anna opened the session with a speech 
in which he announced his predilection for a strong central govern- 
ment, but he professed perfect willingness to yield to whatever 
might be the decision of congress. Nevertheless, in December of 
the same year, after the assembly had made two efforts to form a 
constitution suitable to the country and the cabinet, president Santa 
Anna, —=Hin spite of his professed submission to the national will 
expressed through the representatives, — suddenly and unauthor- 
izedly, dissolved the congress. It was a daring act; but Santa 
Anna knew that he could rely upon his troops, his officers, and the 
mercantile classes for support. The capital wanted quietness for a 
while ; and the interests of trade as well as the army united in con- 
fidence in the strong will of one who was disposed to maintain 
order by force. 

After congress had been dissolved by Santa Anna, there was, of 
course, no further necessity of an appeal to the people. The 
nation had spoken, but its voice was disregarded. Nothing there- 
fore remained, save to allow the dictator, himself, to frame the 
organic laws; and for this purpose he appointed a Junta of Nota- 
bles, who proclaimed, on the 13th of June, 1843, an instrument 
which never took the name of a constitution, but bore the mongrel 
title of ‘‘Bases of the Political Organization of the Mexican Repub- 
lic.”’ It is essentially central, in its provisions; and whilst it is 
as intolerant upon the subject of religion, as the two former funda- 
mental systems, it is even less popular in its general provisions than 
the constitution of 1836. 


42 


CHAPTER VII. 


RECONQUEST OF TEXAS PROPOSED. — CANALIZO PRESIDENT AD 
INTERIM. — REVOLUTION UNDER PAREDES IN 1844. — SANTA 


ANNA FALLS — HERRERA PRESIDENT — TEXAN REVOLT. — ORI- ~ 
GIN OF WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. — TEXAN WAR FOR 
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1824— NATIONALITY RECOGNIZED — ~ 
ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES.— PROPOSITION TO MEXICO, 
— HERRERA OVERTHROWN — PAREDES PRESIDENT — OUR MIN- 
ISTER REJECTED. — CHARACTER OF GENERAL PAREDES. 


Arter the foundation of the new system in 1843, the country 
continued quiet for a while, and when the Mexican Congress met, 
in January 1844, propositions were made by the executive depart- 
ment to carry out Santa Anna’s favorite project of re-conquering 
Texas. It is probable that there was not much sincerity in the 
president’s desire to march his troops into a territory the recollection 
of which must have been, at least, distasteful to him. There is 
more reason to believe that the large sum which it was necessary to 
appropriate for the expenses of the campaign — the management of © 
which would belong te the administration, — was the real object he 
had in view. Four millions were granted for the re-conquest, but 
when Santa Anna demanded ten millions more while the first grant 
was still uncollected, the members refused to sustain the president’s 
demand. The congressmen were convinced of that chieftain’s rapa- 
city, and resolved to afford him no further opportunity to plunder 
the people under the guise of patriotism. 

Santa Anna’s sagacious knowledge of his countrymen immediately 
apprised him of approaching danger, and having obtained permission 
from congress to retire to his estate at Mango de Clavo, near Vera 
Cruz, he departed from the capital, leaving his friend General Cana- 
lizo as president ad interim. Hardly had he reached his plantation 
in the midst of friends and faithful troops, when a revolt burst out 
in Jalisco, Agnas Calientes, Zacatecas, Sinaloa and Sonora, against 
his government, headed by General Paredes. Santa Anna rapidly 
crossed the country to suppress the rebellion, but as he disobeyed 


SANTA ANNA FALLS—HERRERA—TEXAN REVOLT. ooT 


the constitutional compact by taking actual command of the army 
whilst he was president, without the previous assent of congress, he 
became amenable to law for this violation of his oath. He was soon 
at enmity with the rebels and with the constitutional congress, and 
thus a three fold contest was carried on, chiefly through correspond- 
ence, until the 4th of January, 1845, when Santa Anna finally fell. 
He fled from the insurgents and constitutional authorities towards 
the eastern coast, but being captured at the village of Jico, was con- 
ducted to Perote, where he remained imprisoned under a charge and 
examination for treason, until an amnesty for the late political fac- 
tionists permitted him to depart on the 29th of May, 1845, with his 
family, for Havana. 

Upon Santa Anna’s ejection from the executive chair, the presi- 
dent of the council of government, became under the laws of the 
country, provisional president of the republic. This person was 
General José Joaquim de Herrera, during whose administration the 
controversies rose which resulted in the war between Mexico and 
the United States. 

The thread of policy and action in both conntries is so closely 
interwoven during this pernicious contest, that the history of the war 
becomes, in reality, the history of Mexico for the epoch. We are 
therefore compelled to narrate, succinctly, the circumstances that led 
to that lamentable issue. 


_ The first empresario, or contractor, for the colonization of Texas, 
was Moses Austin, a native citizen of the United States, who, as 
soon as the treaty of limits between Spain and our country was con- 
cluded in 1819, conceived the project of establishing a settlement in 
that region. Accordingly, in 1821 he obtained from the Command- 
ant General of the Provincias Internas, permission to introduce three 
hundred foreign families. In 1823, a national colonization law was 
approved by the Mexican Emperor Iturbide during his brief reign, 
and on the 18th of February, Stephen F. Austin, who had succeeded 
his father, after his death, in carrying out the project, was author- 
ized to proceed with the founding of the colony. After the emperor’s 
fall, this decree was confirmed by the first executive council in con- 
formity to the express will of congress. 

In 1824 the federal constitution of Mexico was, as we have 
narrated, adopted, by the republican representatives, upon principles 
analogous to those of the constitution of the United States; and by 
a decree of the 7th of May, Texas and Coahuila were united ina 
state. In this year another general colonization law was enacted 


328 ORIGIN OF WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES, 


by congress, and foreigners were invited to the new domain by a 
special state colonization law of Coahuila and Texas. 

Under these local laws and constitutional guaranties, large num- 
bers of foreigners flocked to this portion of Mexico, opened farms, 
founded towns and villages, re-occupied old Spanish settlements, 
introduced improvements in agriculture and manufactures, drove off 
the Indians, and formed, in fact, the nucleus of an enterprizing 
and progressive population. But there were jealousies between the 
race that invited the colonists, and the colonists who accepted the 
invitation. ‘The central power in the distant capital did not esti- 
mate, at their just value, the mdependence of the remote pioneers, 
or the state-right sovereignty to which they had been accustomed 
at their former home in the United States. Mexico was convulsed 
by revolutions, but the lonely residents of Texas paid no attention 
to the turmoils of the factionists. At length, however, direct acts 
of interference upon the part of the national government, not only 
by its ministerial agents, but by its legislature, excited the min- 
gled alarm and indignation of the colonists, who imagined that in 
sheltering themselves under a republic they were protected as amply 
as they would have been under the constitution of the North Ameri- 
can Union. In this they were disappointed; for, in 1830, an arbi- 
trary enactment— based no doubt upon a jealous dread of the 
growing value and size of a colony which formed a link between 
the United States and Mexico by resting against Tamaulipas and 
Louisiana, on the north and south, — prohibited entirely the future 
immigration of American settlers into Coahuila and Texas. To 
enforce this decree and to watch the loyalty of the actual inhabitants, 
military posts, composed of rude and ignorant Mexican soldiers, 
were sprinkled over the country. And, at last, the people of Texas 
found themselves entirely under military control. 

This suited neither the principles nor tastes of the colonists, who, 
in 1832, took arms against this warlike interference with their 
municipal liberty, and after capturing the fort at Velasco, reduced 
to submission the garrisons at Anahuac and Nacogdoches. ‘The 
separate state constitution which had been promised Texas in 1824, — 
was never sanctioned by the Mexican Congress, though the colo- 
nists prepared the charter and were duly qualified for admission. 
But the crisis arrived when the centralists of 1835, overthrew the 
federal constitution of 1824. Several Mexican states rose inde- 
pendently against the despotic act. Zacatecas fought bravely for 
her rights, and saw her people basely slain by the myrmidons of 
Santa Anna. The legislature of Coahuila and Texas was dispersed 


TEXAN WAR FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF 1824. 329 


by the military ; and, at last, the whole republic, save the pertina- 
cious North Americans, yielded to the armed power of the resolute 
oppressor. 

The alarmed settlers gathered together as quickly as they could 
and resolved to stand by their federative rights under the charter 
whose guaranties allured them into Mexico. Meetings were held in 
all the settlements, and a union was formed by means of correspond- 
ence. Arms were next resorted to and the Texans were victorious 
at Gonzales, Goliad, Bejar, Conception, Lepantitlan, San Patricio 
and San Antonio. In November they met in consultation, and in an 
able, resolute and dignified paper, declared that they had only taken 
up arms in defence of the constitution of 1824 ; that their object was 
to continue loyal to the confederacy if laws were made for the guar- 
dianship of their political rights, and that they offered their lives and 
arms in aid of other members of the republic who would rightfully 
rise against the military despotism. 

But the othe: states, in which there was no infusion of North 
Americans or Europeans, refused to second this hardy handful of 
pioneers. Mexico will not do justice, in any of her commentaries 
on the Texan war, to the motives of the colonists. Charging 
them with an original and long meditated design to rob the repub- 
lic of one of its most valuable provinces, she forgets entirely or 
glosses over, the military acts of Santa Anna’s invading army, in 
March, 1836, at the Alamo and Goliad, which converted resistance 
into revenge. After those disgraceful scenes of carnage peace 
was no longer possible. Santa Anna imagined, no doubt, that he 
would terrify the settlers into submission if he could not drive them 
from the soil. But he mistook both their fortitude and their force; 
and, after the fierce encounter at San Jacinto, on the 21st of April, 
1836, with Houston and his army, the power of Mexico over the 
insurgent state was effectually and forever broken. 

After Santa Anna had been taken prisoner by the Texans, in 
this fatal encounter, and was released and sent home through the 
United States in order to fulfil his promise to secure the recogni- 
tion of Texan independence, the colonists diligently began the 
work of creating for themselves a distinct nationality, for they 
failed in all their early attempts to incorporate themselves with the 
United States during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. 
These presidents were scrupulous and faithful guardians of national 
honor, while they respected the Mexican right of reconquest. 
Their natural sympathies were of course yielded to Texas, but 
their executive duties, the faith of treaties, and the sanctions of 


330 NATIONALITY RECOGNIZED—ANNEXATION TO U. STATES. 


international law forbade their acceding to the proposed union. 
Texas, accordingly, established a national government, elected her 
officers, regulated her trade, formed her army and navy, main- 
tained her frontier secure from assault, and was recognized as, de 
facto, an independent sovereignty by the United States, England, 
France and Belgium. But these efforts of the infant republic did — 
not end in mere preparations for a separate political existence 
and future commercial wealth. The rich soil of the lowlands 
along the numerous rivers that veined the whole region soon at- 
tracted large accessions of immigrants, and the trade of Texas 
began to assume significance in the markets of the world. 

Meanwhile Mexico busied herself, at home, in revolutions, or 
in gathering funds and creating armies, destined, as the authori- 
ties professed, to reconquer the lost province. Yet all these mili- 
tary and financial efforts were never rendered available in the field, 
and, in reality, no adequate force ever marched towards the fron- 
tier. ‘The men and money raised through the services and contri- 
butions of credulous citizens were actually designed to figure in 
the domestic drama of political power in the capital. No hostili- 
ties, of any significance, occurred between the revolutionists and 
the Mexicans after 1836, for we cannot regard the Texan expe- 
dition to Santa Fé, or the Mexican assault upon the town of 
Mier, as belligerant acts deserving consideration as grave efforts 
made to assert or secure national rights. 

Such was the condition of things from 1836 until 1844, during 
the whole of which period Texas exhibited to the world a far bet- 
ter aspect of well regulated sovereignty than Mexico herself. On 
the 12th of April of that year, more than seven years after Texas 
had established her independence, a treaty was concluded by Presi- 
dent Tyler with the representatives of Texas for the annexation of 
that republic to the United States. In March, 1845, Congress 
passed a joint resolution annexing Texas to the union upon certain 
reasonable conditions, which were acceded to by that nation, 
whose convention erected a suitable state constitution, with which 
it became finally a member of our confederacy. In the meantime, — 
the envoys of France and England, had opened negotiations for the 
recognition of Texan independence, which terminated successfully ; 
but when they announced their triumph, on the 20th of May, 1845, 
Texas was already annexed conditionally to the United States by 
the act of congress. 

The joint resolution of annexation, passed by our congress, was 
protested against by General Almonte, the Mexican minister at that 


PROPOSITIONS TO MEXICO — HERRERA OVERTHROWN. 331 


period in Washington, as an act of aggression ‘the most unjust 
which can be found in the annals of modern history”’ and designed 
to despoil a friendly nation of a considerable portion of her terri- 
tory. He announced, in consequence, the termination of his mis- 
sion, and demanded his passports to leave the country. In Mex- 
ico, soon after, a bitter and badly conducted correspondence took 
place between the minister of foreign affairs and Mr. Shannon, our 
envoy. And thus, within a brief period, these two nations found 
themselves unrepresented in each other’s capital and on the eve 
of a serious dispute. 

But the government of the United States, — still sincerely anx- 
ious to preserve peace, or at least, willing to try every effort to 
soothe the irritated Mexicans and keep the discussion in the cabi- 
net rather than transfer it to the battle field, — determined to use 
the kindly efforts of our consul, Mr. Black, who still remained in 
the capital, to seek an opportunity for the renewal of friendly inter- 
‘course. This officer was accordingly directed to visit the minister 
of foreign affairs and ascertain from the Mexican government 
whether it would receive an envoy from the United States, in- 
vested with full power to adjust all the questions in dispute be- 
tween the two governments. The invitation was received with 
apparent good will, and in October, 1845, the Mexican govern- 
ment agreed to receive one, commissioned with full powers to set- 
tle the dispute in a peaceful, reasonable and honorable manner. 


As soon as this intelligence reached the United States, Mr. John 
Slidell was dispatched as envoy extraordinary and minister pleni- 
potentiary on the supposed mission of peace ; but when he reached 
Vera Cruz in November, he found the aspect of affairs changed. 
The government of Herrera, with which Mr. Black’s arrangement 
had been made, was tottering. General Paredes, a leader popular 
with the people and the army, availing himself of the general ani- 
mosity against Texas, and the alleged desire of Herrera’s cabinet 
to make peace with the United States, had determined to overthrow 
the constitutional government. There is scarcely a doubt that 
Herrera and his ministers were originally sincere in their desire to 
Settle the international difficulty, and to maintain the spirit of the 
contract they had made. But the internal danger, with which they 
were menaced by the army and its daring demagogue, induced 
them to prevaricate as soon as Mr. Slidell presented his credentials 
for reception. All their pretexts were, in reality, frivolous, when 
we consider the serious results which were to flow from their enun- 


3a PAREDES PRESIDENT — OUR MINISTER REJECTED. 


ciation. The principal argument against the reception of our 
minister was, that his commission constituted him a regular envoy, 
and that, he was not confined to the discussion of the Texan ques- 
tion alone. Such a mission, the authorities alleged, placed the 
countries at once, dipiane cea upon an equal and ordinary foot- 
ing of peace, and their objection therefore, if it had any force, at 
all, was to the fact, that we exhibited through the credentials of 
our envoy, the strongest evidence that one nation can give to 
another of perfect amity! We had, in truth, no questions in dis- 
pute between us, except boundary and indemnity ; — for Texas, as 
a soyvereignity acknowledged by the acts, not only of the United 
States and of European powers, but in consequence of her own 
maintenance of perfect nationality and independence, had a right to 
annex herself to the United States. The consent of Mexico to ac- 
knowledge her independence in 1845, under certain conditions, 
effectually proved this fact beyond dispute. 

Whilst the correspondence between Slidell and the Mexican 
ministry was going on, Paredes continued his hostile demonstra- 
tions, and, on the 30th of December, 1845, president Herrera, who 
anxiously (desined to avoid Uipedaue ds resigned the executive chair 
to him without a struggle. Feeble as was the hope of success with 
the new authorities, our government, still anxious to close the con- 
test peacefully, directed Mr. Slidell to renew the proposal for his 
reception to Paredes. These instructions he executed on the first 
of March, 1846, but his request was refused by the Mexican 
minister of foreign affairs, on the twelfth of that month, and our 
minister was forthwith obliged to return from his unsuccessful 
mission. 

All the public documents, and addresses of Paredes, made during 
the early movements of his revolution and administration, breathe 
the deadliest animosity to our union. He invokes the god of bat- 
tles, and calls the world to witness the valor of Mexican arms. 
The revolution which raised him to power, was declared to be 
sanctioned by the people, who were impatient for another war, in 
which they might avenge the aggressions of a government that 
sought to prostrate them. Preparations were made for a Texan 
campaign. Loans were raised, and large bodies of troops were 
moved to the frontiers. General Arista, suspected of kindness to 
our country, was superceded in the north by General Ampudia, 
who arrived at Matamoros on the 11th of April, 1846, with two 
hundred cavalry, followed by two thousand men to be united with 
the large body of soldiery already in Matamoros. 


vill of Paredes, who had acquired supreme power by a 
- founded upon the solemn pledge of hostility against the 
ates and reconquest of Texas. His military life in Mexico 


cok 


3 him a despot. He had no confidence in the ability of his 
-citizens to govern themselves. He believed republicanism 
pian dream of his visionary countrymen. Free discussion 
hrough the press was prohibited, during his short rule, and his 
satellites advocated the establishment of a throne to be occupied by 


aropean prince. These circumstances induced our government 


age 


Anta 


Ofte ov 


A Lina 


CHARACTER OF GENERAL PAREDES. 3338 


itary demonstrations denoted the unquestionable de- 


CHAPTER VIII. 
1846. 


@aENERAL TAYLOR ORDERED TO THE RIO GRANDE. — HISTORY OF 
TEXAN BOUNDARIES. — ORIGIN OF THE WAR. — MILITARY PRE- 
PARATIONS — COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. — BATTLES OF 
PALO ALTO AND RESACA. — MATAMOROS — TAYLOR’S ADVANCE. 
— FALL OF MONTEREY. 


Wuitst Slidell was negotiating, and, in consequence of the 
anticipated failure of his effort to be received,— as was clearly 
indicated by the conduct of the Mexican government upon his arri- 
val in the capital, — General Taylor, who had been stationed at 
Corpus Christi, in Texas, since the fall of 1845, with a body of 
regular troops, was directed, on the 13th of January, 1846, to move 
his men to the mouth of the Rio Grande. He, accordingly left his 
encampment on the 8th of March, and, on the 25th, reached Point 
Isabel, having encountered no serious opposition on the way. The 
march to the Rio Grande has been made the subject of complaint 
by politicians in Mexico and the United States, who believed that 
the territory lying between that river and the Nueces, was not the 
property of Texas. But inasmuch as Mexico still continued vehe- 
mently to assert her political right over the whole of Texas, the 
occupation of any part of its soil, south of the Sabine, by American 
troops, was in that aspect of the case, quite as much an infringe- 
ment of Mexican sovereignty, as the march of our troops, from the 
Nueces to the Rio Grande. 

As it is important that the reader should understand the original 
title to Louisiana, under which the boundary of the Rio Grande, 
was claimed, first of all for that state, and, subsequently, for Texas, 
we shall relate its history in a summary manner. ; 

Louisiana had been the property of France, and by a secret con- 
tract between that country and Spain in 1762, as well as by treaties 
between France, Spain, and England, in the following year, the 
French dominion was extinguished on the continent of America. 
In consequence of the treaty between this country and England in 
1783, the Mississippi became the western boundary of the United 
States, from its source to the thirty-first degree of north latitude, 


HISTORY OF TEXAN BOUNDARIES. 335 


and thence, on the same parallel, to the St. Mary’s. France, it 
will be remembered, had always claimed dominion in Louisiana to 
the Rio Bravo del Norte, or Rio Grande; by virtue : — 

1st. Of the discovery of the gov tae from near its scurce to 
the ocean. 

2d. Of the possession taken, and establishment made by La 
Salle, at the bay of Saint Bernard, west of the river Trinity and 
Colorado, by authority of Louis XIV. in 1635 — notwithstanding 
the subsequent destruction of the colony. 

3d. Of the charter of Louis XIV. to Crozat in 1712. 

Ath. Of the historical authority of Du Prakz Champigny and 
the Count de Vergennes. 

5th. Of the authority of De Lisle’s map, and of the map publish- 
ed in 1762, by Don Thomas Lopez, Geographer to the king of 
Spain, as well as of various other maps, atlases, and geographical 
authorities. 

By an article of the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in October, 
1800, Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, but this treaty was 
not promulgated until the beginning of 1802. The paragraph of 
cession is as follows: ‘‘ His Catholic majesty engages to retrocede 
to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execu- 
tion of the conditions and stipulations above recited, relative to his 
royal highness the Duke of Parma, the colony and province of 
Louisiana, with the same extent that it already has in the hands of 
Spain, and that tt had when France possessed it, and, such as it 
should be, after the treaties passed subsequently between Spain and 
other powers.” In 1803, Bonaparte, the first consul of the French 
republic, ceded Louisiana to the United States, as fully, and in the 
Same manner, as it had been retroceded to France by Spain, under 
the treaty of San Ildefonso; and, by virtue of this grant, Messrs. 
Madison, Monroe, Adams, Clay, Van Buren, Jackson, and Polk, 
contended that the original limit of the new state had been the 
Rio Grande. However, by the third article of our treaty with 
Spain, in 1819, all our pretensions to extend the territory of Lou- 
isiana towards Mexico on the Rio Grande, were abandoned by 
adopting the river Sabine as our boundary in that quarter. 

The Mexican authorities upon this subject are either silent or 
doubtful. No light is to be gathered from the geographical re- 
searches of Humboldt, whose elucidations of New Spain are in 
many respects the fullest and most satisfactory. In the year 1835, 
Stephen Austin published a map of Texas, representing the Nueces 
as the western confine, —and in 1836, General Almonte the former 


336 ORIGIN OF THE WAR. 


minister from Mexico to the United States, published a memoir 
upon Texas in which, whilst describing the Texan department of 
Bejar, he says —‘‘ That notwithstanding it has been hitherto be- 
lieved that the Rio de las Nueces is the dividing line of Coahuila 
and Texas, inasmuch as it is always thus represented on maps, I 
am informed by the government of the state, that geographers have 
been in error upon this subject; and that the true line should com- 
mence at the mouth of the river Aransaso, and follow it to its 
source ; thence, it should continue by a straight line until it strikes 
the junction of the rivérs Medina and San Antonio, and then, pur- 
suing the east bank of the Medina to its head waters, it should 
terminate on the confines of Chihuahua.” 1 

The true origin of the Mexican war was not this march of Tay- 
lor and his troops from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, through the 
debatable land. The American and Mexican troops were brought 
face to face by the act, and hostilities were the natural result 
after the exciting annoyances upon the part of the Mexican gov- 
ernment which followed the union of Texas with our confederacy. 
Besides this, General Paredes, the usurping president, had already 
declared in Mexico, on the 18th of April, 1846, in a letter ad- 
dressed to the commanding officer on the northern frontier, that he 
supposed him at the head of a valiant army on the theatre of ac- 
tion; — and that it was indispensable to commence hostilities, the 
Mexicans themselves taking the initiatwwe ! 

We believe that our nation and its rulers earnestly desired hon- 
orable peace, though they did not shun the alternative of war. 
It was impossible to permit a conterminous neighbor who owed 
us large sums of money, and was hostile to the newly adopted 
state, to select unopposed her mode and moment of attack. Mex- 
ico would neither resign her pretensions upon Texas, negotiate, 
receive our minister, nor remain at peace. She would neither 
declare war, nor cultivate friendship, and the result was, that 
when the armies approached each other, but little time was lost in 
resorting to the cannon and the sword. 

As soon as General Taylor reached the Rio Grande he left a 
command at the mouth of the river, and taking post opposite 
Matamoros erected a fort, the guns of which bore directly upon the 
city. The Mexicans, whose artillery might have been brought to 
play upon the works, from the opposite side of the river, made no 
hostile demonstration against the left bank for some time, nor did 
they interrupt the construction of the fort. Reinforcements, how- 


1 Memorias para la historia de la Guerra de Tejas, vol. ii, p. 543. 


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MILITARY PREPARATIONS. 337 


ever, were constantly arriving in the city. Ampudia and Arista 
were there. Interviews were held between the Mexican authori- 
ties and our officers, in which the latter were ordered to retire from 
the soil it was alleged they were usurping. But as this was a 
diplomatic, and not a military question, General Taylor resolved to 
continue in position, though his forces were perhaps inadequate to 
contend with the augmenting numbers of the foe. He examined 
the country thoroughly by his scouting parties and pushed his re- 
connoissances, on the left bank, from Point Isabel to some distance 
beyond his encampment opposite Matamoros. Whilst engaged in 
this service, some of his officers and men were captured or killed 
by the ranchero cavalry of the enemy; and, on the 24th of April, 
Captain Thornton who had been sent to observe the country 
above the encampment with sixty-three dragoons, fell into an am- 
buscade, out of which they endeavored to cut their way, but were 
forced to surrender with a loss of sixteen killed and wounded. 
This was the first blood spilled in actual conflict. 

Meanwhile, in the United States, the news of Taylor’s supposed 
danger, greatly exaggerated by rumor, was spread far and wide. 
An actual war had, perhaps, not been seriously apprehended. Taylor 
had been expressly commanded to refrain from aggression. It was 
supposed that the mere presence of our troops on the frontier would 
preserve Texas from invasion, and that negotiations would ulti- 
mately terminate the dispute. This is the only ground upon which 
we can reasonably account for the apparent carelessness of our 
government in not placing a force upon the Rio Grande, adequate 
to encounter all the opposing array. Congress was in session 
when the news reached Washington. The president immediately 
announced the fact, and, on the 13th of May, 1846, ten millions of 
dollars were appropriated to carry on the war, and fifty thousand 
volunteers were ordered to be raised. An “Army or THE West” 
was directed to be formed under the command of Kearney, at fort 
Leavenworth, on the Missouri, which was to cross the country to 
the Pacific, after capturing New Mexico. An ‘‘ Army oF THE 
CrenTrE,”’ under General Wool, was to assemble at San Antonio 
de Bejar whence it was to march upon Coahuila and Chihuahua, 
and, whilst the heart and the west of Mexico were penetrated by 
these officers, it was designed that Taylor should make war on the 
northern and eastern states of the Mexican republic. In addition 
to these orders to the army, the naval forces, under Commodores 
Stockton and Sloat in the Pacific, and Commodore Conner, in the 
Gulf of Mexico, were commanded to co-operate with our land 


338 COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. 


forces, to harass the enemy, and to aid, with all their power, in 
the subjugation and capture of Mexican property and territory. 

Immediately after Thornton’s surrender, General Taylor, availing 
himself of authority with which he had been invested to call upon 
the governors of Louisiana and Texas for military aid, demanded 
four regiments of volunteers from each state, for the country in the 
neighborhood of the Rio Grande was alive with belligerant Mexi- 
cans. He then visited the fortifications opposite Matamoros, and 
finding the garrison but scantly supplied with provisions, hastened 
back to Point Isabel with a formidable escort, and obtaining the 
requisite rations, commenced his march back to Matamoros and 
the fort on the 7th of May. But, in the interval, General Arista, 
had crossed the Rio Grande with his forces, and on the 8th, our 
General encountered him, drawn up in battle array at Palo Alto 
and ready to dispute his passage along the road. A sharp engage- 
ment ensued between the two armies from two o’clock in the after- 
noon until nearly dark, when the Mexicans withdrew from the 
action for the night. Our total force in this affair, according to 
official reports, was two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight, 
while that of Mexico, according to the admission of the officers, 
amounted to six thousand regulars with a large and probably un- 
disciplined force drawn, at random, from the country. 

The night of the 8th was passed with some anxiety in the Ameri- 
can camp, for the fierce conflict of the day induced many prudent 
officers to believe it best either to return to Point Isabel or await 
reinforcements before again giving battle to the enemy. General 
Taylor heard and weighed the opinions of his most reliable officers, 
but, after due reflection, determined to advance. The condition 
of the fort opposite Matamoros demanded his urgent aid. The 
moral effect of a retreat would be great, at the commencement of a 
war, both on Mexico and our own troops; and, moreover, he had 
perfect confidence in the disciplined regulars who sustained so 
nobly the brunt of the first battle. 

Accordingly the troops were advanced early on the 9th, for they 
found, at day dawn, that the Mexicans had abandoned Palo Alto 
for a stronger position nearer the centre of action and interest at 
Matamoros. After advancing cautiously, in readiness for im- 
mediate battle, our men came up with the Mexicans, in the Resaca 
de la Palma, or as it is properly called La Resaca del Guerrero, — 
the “Ravine of the Warrior, ”? which afforded them a natural de- 
fence against our approach along the road. The ravine, curved 
across the highway and was flanked by masses of prickly plants 


BATTLES OF PALO ALTO AND RESACA. 339 


aloes, and undergrowth, matted into impenetrable thickets, known 
in Mexico as chapparal. The action was begun by the infantry in 
skirmishes with the foe, and after the centre of the position on the 
road had been severely harassed and damaged by our flying artil- 
lery, a gallant charge of the dragoons broke the Mexican lines and 
opened a pathway to Matamoros. The engagement lasted a short 
time after this combined movement of artillery and cavalry, but, 
before night fall the enemy was in full flight to the river and our 
garrison at the fort joyously relieved. In the interval, this position 
had been bombarded and cannonaded by the Mexicans from the 
opposite side of the river, and its commanding officer slam. In 
memory of his valiant defence, the place has been honored with the 
name of Fort Brown. 

After General Taylor had occupied Matamoros on the 18th of 
May, —and he was only prevented from capturing it and all the 
Mexican forces and ammunition on the night of the 9th by the 
want of a ponton train, which he had vainly demanded, — he es- 
tablished his base line for future operations in the interior, along 
the Rio Grande, extending several hundred miles near that stream. 
His task of organizing, accepting, or rejecting the multitudes of 
recruits who flocked to his standard, was not only oppressive but 
difficult, for he found it hard to disappoint the patriotic fervor of 
hundreds who were anxious to engage in the war. The Quater- 
master’s department, too, was one ox incessant toil and anxiety; 
because, called unexpectedly and for the first time into active ser- 
vice in the field, it was comparatively unprepared to answer the 
multitude of requisitions that were daily made upon it by the 
government, the general officers, and the recruits. The whole 
material of a campaign was to be rapidly created. Money was to 
be raised; steamers bought; ships chartered; wagons built and 
transported ; levies brought to the field of action; munitions of war 
and provisions distributed over the whole vast territory which it 
was designed to occupy! Whilst these things were going on, the 
country, at home, was ripe, and most eager for action. 

Nor was our government inattentive to the internal politics of 
Mexico. It perceived at once that there was no hope of effecting 
a peace with the administration of Paredes, whose bitter hostility 
was of course, not mitigated by the first successes of our arms. 
Santa Anna, it will be recollected had left Mexico after the amnes- 
ty in 1845, and it was known there was open hostility between 
him and Paredes who had contributed so greatly to his downfall. 
Information was, moreover, received from reliable sources in Wash- 


340 MATAMOROS — TAYLOR’S ADVANCE. 


ington, that a desire prevailed in the republic to recall the banished 
chief and to seat him once more in the presidential chair; and, at 
the same time, there was cause to believe that if he again obtained 
supreme power he would not be averse to accommodate matters 
upon a satisfactory basis between the countries. Orders were, 
accordingly issued to Commodore Conner, who commanded the 
home squadron in the gulf, to offer no impediment if Santa Anna ap- 
proached the coast with a design of entering Mexico. The exiled 
president was duly apprised of these facts, and when the revolution 
actually occurred in his favor in the following summer and his rival 
fell from power, he availed himself of the order to pass the lines of 
the blockading squadron at Vera Cruz. 

After General Taylor had completely made his preparations to 
advance into the interior along his base on the Rio Grande, he 
moved forward gradually, capturing and garrisoning all the impor- 
tant posts along the river. At length the main body of the army, 
under Worth and Taylor reached the neighborhood of Monterey, 
the capital of the state of New Leon, situated at the foot of the 
Sierra Madre on a plain, but in a position which would enable it 
to make a stout resistance, especially as it was understood that the 
Mexican army had gathered itself up in this stronghold, which was 
the key of the northern provinces and on the main highway to the 
interior, in order to strike a death blow at the invaders. On the 
5th of September, the divisions concentrated at Marin, and on the 
9th they advanced to the Walnut Springs, which afterwards be- 
came, for so long a period, the headquarters of the gallant ‘“‘“Army 
oF OccuPATION. ”’ 

Reconnoissances of the adjacent country were immediately made 
and it was resolved to attack the city by a bold movement towards 
its southern side that would cut off its communications through the 
gap in the mountains by which the road led to Saltillo. Accord- 
ingly General Worth was detached on this difficult but honorable 
service with a strong and reliable corps, and, after excessive toil, 
hard fighting and wonderful endurance upon the part of our men, 
the desired object was successfully gained. An unfinished and 
fortified edifice called the Bishop’s Palace, on the summit of a steep 
hill was stormed and taken, and thus an important vantage ground, 
commanding the city by a plunging shot, was secured. 

Meanwhile, General Taylor seeking to withdraw or distract the 
enemy from his designs on the southern and western sides of the 
city, made a movement under General Butler, of Kentucky, upon 
its northern front. What was probably designed only as a feint 


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soon became a severe and deadly conflict. Our men, — especially 
the volunteers, — eager to flesh their swords in the first conflict 
with which the war indulged them, rushed into the city, which 
seems to have been amply prepared, in that quarter, with barri- 
cades, forts, loop-holes, and every means of defence suitable for 
the narrow streets and flat roofed and parapeted houses of a Span- 
ish town. After the first deadly onset there was, of course, no 
intention or desire to abandon the conflict, fatal as its prosecution 
might ultimately become. On they fought from street to street, 
and house to house, and yard to yard, until night closed over the 
dying and the dead. On the second day a different system of 
approach was adopted. Instead of risking life in the street which 
was raked from end to end by artillery, or rendered untenable by 
the hidden marksmen who shot our men from behind the walls of 
the house tops, our forces were thrown into the dwellings, and 
breaking onward through walls and enclosures, gradually mined 
their way towards the plaza or great square of Monterey. 

Thus, both divisions under the eyes of Worth, Butler and Tay- 
lor, successfully performed their assigned tasks, until it became 
evident to the Mexicans that their town must fall, and, that if 
finally taken by the sword, it would be given up to utter destruction 
and pillage. A capitulation was therefore proposed by Ampudia 
who stipulated for the withdrawal of his forces and an armistice. 
Our force was in no condition to seize, hold, and support a large 
body of prisoners of war, nor was it prepared immediately to follow 
up the victory by penetrating the interior. General Taylor, who 
was resolved not to shed a single drop of needless blood in the 
campaign, granted the terms; and, thus, this strong position, gar- 
risoned by nearly ten thousand troops, sustained by more than forty 
pieces of artillery, yielded to our army of seven thousand, unsup- 
ported by a battering train and winning the day by hard fighting 
alone. The attack began on the 21st of September, continued 
during the two following days, and the garrison capitulated on the 
24th. ‘This capitulation and armistice were assented to by our 
commander after mature consultation and approval of his principal 
officers. ‘The Mexicans informed him, that Paredes had been de- 
posed, —that Santa Anna was in power, and that peace would 
soon be made; but the authorities, at home, eager for fresh vic- 
tories, or pandering to public and political taste, did not approve 
and confirm an act, for which General Taylor has, nevertheless re- 
ceived, as he truly merits, the just applause of impartial history. 


44 


CHAPTER IX. 
1846 — 1847. 


GENERAL WOOL INSPECTS AND MUSTERS THE WESTERN TROOPS.— 


ARMY OF THE CENTRE. —NEW MEXICO — KEARNEY — MAC- 
NAMARA — CALIFORNIA. — FREMONT — SONOMA — CALIFORNIAN 
INDEPENDENCE — POSSESSION TAKEN. — SLOAT — STOCKTON. 


— A REVOLT — PICO—TREATY OF COUENGA. — KEARNEY AT» 
SAN PASCUAL—IS RELIEVED — DISPUTES — SAN GABRIELLE 
—MESA— LOS ANGELES. —FREMONT’S CHARACTER, SERVICES, 
TRIAL. 


GENERAL Wool, who had been for a long period inspector gen- 
eral of the United States army, was entrusted with the difficult 
task of examining the recruits in the west, and set forth on his 
journey after receiving his orders on the 29th of May, 1846. He 
traversed the states of Ohio, Indiana, [linois, Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee and Mississippi, and, in somewhat less than two months, 
had journeyed three thousand miles and mustered twelve thousand 
men into service. This expedition of a hardy soldier exhibits, at 
once, the powers of a competent American officer, and the facility 
with which an efficient corps d’armée, may at any urgent moment, 
be raised in our country. 

Nearly nine thousand of these recruits were sent to Taylor on the 
Rio Grande, while those who were destined for the ‘‘ Army of the 
Centre,” rendezvoused at Bejar, in Texas. At this place their 
commander Wool joined them, and commenced the rigid system 
of discipline, under accomplished officers, which made his division 
a model in the army. He marched from Bejar with five hundred 
regulars and two thousand four hundred and fifty volunteers, on the 
20th of September, and passed onwards though Presidio, Nava, 
and across the Sierra of San José and Santa Rosa, and the rivers 
Alamos, Sabine, and del Norte, until he reached Monclova. He 
had been directed to advance to Chihuahua, but as this place was 
in a great measure controled by the states gf New Leon and Coa- 
huila which were already in our possession, he desisted from pur- 
suing his march thither, and, after communicating with General 
Taylor and learning the fall of Monterey, he pushed on to the fer- 
tile region of Parras and thence to the headquarters of General 
Taylor, in the month of December, as soon as he was apprised of 
the danger which menaced him at that period. 


NEW MEXICO—KEARNEY—MACNAMARA—CALIFORNIA. 343 


We have already said that it was part of our government’s ori- 
ginal plan to reduce New Mexico and California, —a task which 
was imposed upon Colonel Kearney, a hardy frontier fighter, long 
used to Indian character and Indian warfare — who, upon being 
honored with the command was raised to the rank of Brigadier 
General. This officer moved from Fort Leavenworth on the 30th 
of June, towards Santa Fé, the capital of New Mexico, with an 
army of sixteen hundred men, and after an unresisted march of 
eight hundred and seventy-three miles, he reached his destination 
on the 18th of August. Possession of the place was given without 
a blow, and it is probable that the discreet Armijo yielded to the 
advice of American counsellors in his capital, in surrendering 
without bloodshed to our forces. Kearney had been authorized to 
organize and muster into service a battalion of emigrants to Oregon 
and California, who eagerly availed themselves of this favorable 
military opportunity to reach their distant abodes on the shores of 
the Pacific. After organizing the new government of Santa Fe, 
forming a new code of organic laws, and satisfying himself of the 
stability of affairs in that quarter, Kearney departed on his mission 
to California. But he had not gone far when he was met by an 
express with information of the fall of that portion of Mexico, and 
immediately sent back the main body of his men, continuing his 
route through the wilderness with the escort of one hundred 
dragoons alone. In September of this year, a regiment of New 
York volunteer infantry had been despatched thither also, by sea, 
under the command of Colonel Stevenson. 

There is evidence in existence that shortly before the com- 
mencement of this war, it had been contemplated to place a large 
portion of the most valuable districts of California, indirectly, under 
British protection, by grants to an Irish Catholic clergyman named 
Macnamara, who projected a colony of his countrymen in those 
regions. He excited the Mexicans to accede to his proposal by 
appeals to their religious prejudices against the Protestants of the 
north, who, he alleged, would seize the jewel unless California 
was settled by his countrymen whose creed would naturally unite 
them with the people and institutions of Mexico. ‘‘ Within a 
year, he declared, California would become a part of the American 
nation; and, inundated by cruel invaders, their Catholic institu- 
tions would be the prey of Methodist wolves.”? The government 
of Mexico granted three thousand square leagues in the rich valley 
of San Joaquin, embracing San Francisco, Monterey, and Santa 
Barbara, to this behest of the foreign priest; but his patent could 


344 FREMONT — SONOMA — CALIFORNIAN EXPEDITION. 


not be perfected until the governor of California sanctioned his 
permanent tenure of the land. 

In November, 1845, Lieutenant Gillespie was despatched from 
Washington with verbal instructions to Captain Frémont who had 
been pursuing his scientific examinations of California, and had 
been inhospitably ordered by the authorities to quit the country. 
Early in March of 1846, the bold explorer was within the bounda- 
ries of Oregon, where he was found, in the following May, by Gil- 
lespie, who delivered him his verbal orders and a letter of credence 
from the Secretary of State. 

In consequence of this message, Frémont abandoned his camp 
in the forest, surrounded by hostile Indians, and moved south to 
the valley of the Sacramento, where he was at once hailed by the 
American settlers, who, together with the foreigners generally, had 
received orders from the Mexican General Castro, to leave Califor- 
nia. Frémont’s small band immediately formed the nucleus of a 
revolutionary troop, which gathered in numbers as it advanced 
south, and abstaining guardedly from acts which might disgust the 
people, they injured no individuals and violated no private pro- 
perty. On the 14th of June, Sonoma was taken possession of, and 
was garrisoned by a small force, under Mr. Ide, who issued a pro- 
clamation, inviting all to come to his camp and aid in forming a 
republican government. Coure and Fowler, two young Ameri- 
cans, were murdered about this period in the neighborhood, and 
others were taken prisoners under Padilla. But the belligerants 
were pursued to San Raphael by Captain Ford, where they were 
conquered by the Americans; and, on the 25th of June, Fré- 
mont, who heard that Castro was approaching with two hun- 
dred men, joined the camp at Sonoma. Thus far, every thing had 
been conducted with justice and liberality by our men. They stu- 
diously avoided disorderly conduct or captures, and invariably 
promised payment for the supplies that were taken for the support 
of the troopers. The Californians were in reality gratified by the 
prospect of American success in their territory, for they believed 
that it would secure a stable and progressive government, under 
which, that beautiful region would be gradually developed. 

On the 5th of July, the Californian Americans declared their 
independence, and organizing a battalion, of which Frémont was 
the chief, they raised the standard of the Bear and Star. 

Frémont, at the head of his new battalion, moved his camp to 
Sutter’s Fort on the Sacramento, and whilst he was preparing, in 
July, to follow General Castro to Santa Clara, he received the joy- 


POSSESSION TAKEN — SLOAT — STOCKTON. 345 


ful news that Commodore Sloat had raised the American flag on 
the 7th of the month at Monterey, and that war actually existed 
between Mexico and the United States. The Californian Ameri- 
cans of course immediately abandoned their revolution for the 
national war, and substituted the American ensign for the grisly 
emblem under which they designed conquering the territory. 

On the 8th of July, Commander Montgomery took possession 
of San Francisco, and soon after, Frémont joined Commodore 
Sloat at Monterey. Sloat, who had in reality acted upon the faith 
of Frémont’s operations in the north, knowing that Gillespie had 
been sent to him as a special messenger, and having heard, whilst 
at Mazatlan, of the warlike movements on the Rio Grande, was 
rather fearful that he had been precipitate in his conduct; but he 
resolved to maintain what he had done; and accordingly, when 
admiral Sir George Seymour, arrived in the Collingwood at Mon- 
terey, on the 6th of July, the grants to the Irish clergyman were 
not completed, and the American flag was already floating on every 
important post in the north of California. Seymour took Macna- 
mara on board his ship, and thus the hopes of the British partizans 
were effectually blighted when the Admiral and his passenger sailed 
from the coast. 

Commodore Stockton arrived at Monterey during this summer 
and Sloat returned to the United States, leaving the Commodore 
in command. Frémont and Gillespie, who were at the head of 
forces on shore determined to act under the orders of the naval 
commander, and Stockton immediately prepared for a military 
movement against the city of Los Angeles, where, he learned, that 
General Castro and the civil governor Pico had assembled six hun- 
dred men. Frémont and the Commodore, embarking their forces 
at Monterey, sailed for San Pedro and San Diego, where, landing 
their troops, they united and took possession of Los Angeles on 
the 13th of August. The public buildings, archives and property 
fell into their possession without bloodshed, for Castro, the com- 
manding general, fled at their approach. Stockton issued a pro- 
clamation announcing these facts to the people on the 17th of 
August, and having instituted a government, directed elections, 
and required an oath of allegiance from the military. He appoint- 
ed Frémont, military commandant and Gillespie, secretary. On 
the 28th of August he reported these proceedings to the govern- 
ment at Washington, by the messenger who was met by General 
Kearney, as we have already related, on his way from Santa Fé to 
the Pacific. Carson, the courier, apprised the General of the con- 


346 A REVOLT — PICO — TREATY OF COUENGA. 


quest of California, and was obliged by him to return as his guide, 
whilst a new messenger was despatched towards the east, with the 
missives, escorted by the residue of the troop which was deemed 
useless for further military efforts on the shores of the Pacific. 

But before Kearney reached his destination, a change had come 
over affairs in California. Castro returned to the charge in Sep- 
tember with a large Mexican force headed by General Flores, and 
the town of Los Angeles and the surrounding country having 
revolted, expelled the American garrison. Four hundred marines 
who landed from the Savannah under Captain Mervine, were re- 
pulsed, while the garrison of Santa Barbara, under Lieutenant 
Talbott had retired before a large body of Californians and Mexi- 
cans. Frémont, immediately resolving to increase his battalion, 
raised four hundred and twenty-eight men, chiefly from the emi- 
grants who moved this year to California. He mounted his troop- 
ers on horses procured in the vicinity of San Francisco and Sutter's 
Fort, and marched secretly but quickly to San Luis Obispo, where 
he surprised and captured Don Jesus Pico, the commandant of that 
military post. Pico having been found in arms had broken his 
parole, given during the early pacification, and a court-martial 
sentenced him to be shot; but Frémont, still steadily pursuing his 
humane policy towards the Californians, pardoned the popular and 
influential chieftain, who, from that hour, was his firm friend 
throughout the subsequent troubles. 

On Christmas day of 1846, amid storm and rain, in which a 
hundred horses and mules perished, Frémont and his brave bat- 
talion passed the mountain of Santa Barbara. Skirting the coast 
through the long maritime pass at Punto Gordo, — protected on 
one flank by one of the vessels of the navy, and assailed, on the 
other, by fierce bands of mounted Californians, —they moved 
onward until they reached the plain of Couenga where the enemy 
was drawn up with a force equal to their own. Frémont sum- 
moned the hostile troops to surrender, and after their consent to a 
parley, went to them with Don Jesus Pico and arranged the terms 
of the capitulation, by which they bound themselves to deliver their 
arms to our soldiers and to conform, at home, to the laws of the 
United States, though no Californians should be compelled to take 
an oath of allegiance to the United States, until the war was ended 
and the treaty either exonerated them or changed their nationality. 

Meanwhile General Kearney, on his westward march from Santa 
Fé, had reached a place called Warner’s Rancho, thirty-three miles 
from San Diego, where a captured Calitornian mail for. Sonoma 
apprised him that the southern part of the territory was wrested 


KEARNEY AT SAN PASCUAL—IS RELIEVED. 347 


from our troops. The letters exulted over our discomfiture, but it 
was supposed that, as usual in Mexico, they exaggerated the mis- 
fortune of the Americans. Kearney’s small troop was much en- 
feebled by the long and fatiguing journey it had made from Santa 
Fé amid great privations. From Warner’s Rancho the commander 
communicated with Stockton by means of a neutral Englishman, 
and, on the 5th of December, was joined by Gillespie, who in- 
formed him, that a mounted Californian force, under Andres Pico, 
was prepared to dispute his passage towards the coast. On the 
6th the Americans left the rancho, resolving to come suddenly upon 
the enemy, and confident that the usual success of our troops would 
attend the exploit ;—— but the fresh forces of this hardy and brave 
Californian band, composed perhaps, of some of the most expert 
horsemen in that region, were far more than a match for the toil- 
worn troopers of Kearney. Eighteen of our men were killed in 
this action at San Pascual, and thirteen wounded. For several 
days the camp of the Americans was besieged by the fierce and 
hardy children of the soil. The provisions of the beleagured band 
were scant, and it was almost entirely deprived of water. Its posi- 
tion was, in every respect, most disastrous, and, in all probability, 
it would have perished from famine or fallen an easy prey to the 
Mexicans, had not the resolute Carson, accompanied by Lieutenant 
Beale and an Indian, volunteered to pass the dangerous lines of the 
enemy to seek assistance at San Diego. These heroic men per- 
formed their perilous duty, and Lieutenant Grey, with a hundred 
and eighty soldiers and marines, reached and relieved his anxious 
countrymen on the 10th of December, bringing them, in two days, 
to the American camp at San Diego. 

As soon as the band had recruited its strength, Kearney naturally 
became anxious to engage in active service. He had been sent to 
California, according to the language of his instructions, to conquer 
and govern it; but he found Commodore Stockton already in the 
position of governor, with an ample naval force at his orders, 
whilst the broken remnant of the dragoons who accompanied him 
from Santa Fé, was altogether incompetent to subdue the revolted 
territory. By himself therefore, he was altogether inadequate for 
any successful military move. Stockton, quite as anxious as Kear- 
ney to engage in active hostilities, was desirous to accompany the 
general as his aid; but Kearney declined the service, and, in turn, 
volunteered to become the aid of Stockton. The commodore, less 
accustomed, perhaps, to military etiquette than to prompt and useful 
action at a moment of difhieulty, resolved at once to end the game of 


idle compliments, and accepted the offer of General Kearney; but, 


348 DISPUTES—-SAN GABRIELLE — MESA -——LOS ANGELES. 


before they departed, Stockton agreed that he might command the 
expedition in a position subordinate to him as commander-in-chief. 

On the 29th of December, with sixty volunteers, four hundred 
marines, six heavy pieces of artillery, eleven heavy wagons, and 
fifty-seven dragoons composing the remains of General Kearney’s 
troop, they marched towards the north, and, on the 7th of January, 
found themselves near the river San Gabrielle, the passage of which | 
the enemy, with superior numbers under General Flores, was prepar- 
ed to dispute. It was a contest between American sailors and sol- 
diers, and California horsemen, for the whole Mexican troop was 
mounted; yet the Americans were successful and crossed the river. 
This action occurred about nine miles from Los Angeles, and our 
men pushed on six miles further, till they reached the Mesa, a level 
prairie, where Flores again attacked them and was beaten off. Re- 
treating thence to Couenga, the Californians, refusing to submit to 
Stockton and Kearney, capitulated, as we have already declared to 
Colonel Frémont, who had been raised to this rank by our govern- 
ment. On the morning of the 10th of January, 1847, the Americans 
took final possession of Los Angeles. Soon after this a govern- 
ment was established for California, which was to continue until the 
close of the war or until the government or the population of the 
region changed it. 

The disputes which arose between Stockton, Kearney, and Fré- 
mont, as to the right to command in California, under the orders 
from their respective departments, are matters rather of private and 
personal interest than of such public concern as would entitle them 
to be mrnutely recounted in this brief sketch of the Mexican war. 
It is impossible to present a faithful idea of the controversy and its 
merits without entering into a detail of all the circumstances, but 
for this, we have no space, in the present history. Strict military 
etiquette appears to have demanded of Kearney, immediately upon 
his arrival, the assertion of his right to command as a general officer 
operating in the interior of the country. This was a question solely 
between Stockton and himself, in which Frémont, a subordinate 
officer, recently transplanted from the Topographical corps into the 
regular army as a Colonel, had of course, no interest save that of 
duty. Nevertheless he became involved in the controversy between 
the claimants, and although raised to the rank of Governor of Cali- 
fornia, by Commodore Stockton, he was deprived of his authority 
when General Kearney subsequently assumed that station. The 
disputes between the Commodore and the General seem to have 
arisen under the somewhat conflicting instructions of the War and 


FREMONT’S CHARACTER — SERVICES — TRIAL. 349 


Navy Departments, and were calculated, as distinguished officers 
afterwards declared officially, to “embarrass the mind, and to excite 
the doubts of officers of greater experience’’ than the Colonel. 
Although Frémont’s services were lost for a while on the shores 
of the Pacific, he was not forgotten either there, or at home. What 
he had done for his country in that remote region by exploring its 
solitudes with his hardy band; what he added to geographical and 
general science; what regions he almost revealed to American 
pioneers; what services he rendered in securing a happy issue to 
the war in California—bhave all been recollected with gratitude and 
rewarded with the virgin honors of the new born State. But, at 
that time, this brilliant officer who combined the science of Hum- 
boldt with the energy and more than the generosity of Cortéz, was 
doomed to suffer more than the temporary deprivation of power. 
After the war was in reality over, after Commodore Stockton had 
departed and General Kearney had assumed the governorship which 
was subsequently given to Colonel Mason—Frémont was refused 
permission to continue his scientific pursuits in California or to join 
his regiment on the active fields of Mexico. When General Kear- 
ney turned his face homewards, towards the close of the spring of 
1847, Frémont was ordered to follow in his train across the moun- 
tains, and was finally arrested at Fort Leavenworth, on the borders 
of civilization. - During the next winter he was tried by a Court 
Martial on charges of mutiny, disobedience, and conduct to the 
prejudice of good order and military discipline, and being found 
guilty was sentenced to be dismissed the service. A majority of 
the court, however, considering all the circumstances of the case, 
recommended him to the lenient judgment of the President, who not 
being satisfied that the facts proved the military crime of mutiny — 
though he sustained the court’s opinion otherwise—and recognizing 
Frémont’s previous meritorious and valuable services, released him 
from arrest, restored his sword and ordered him to report for duty. 
But Frémont, feeling unconscious, as he declared, of having done 
any thing to merit the finding of the court, declined the offered 
restoration to the service, as he could not, ‘‘by. accepting the 


clemency of the President, admit the justice of the decision against 
him.” 


45 


CHAPTER X. 
1847. 


VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE.— SANTA ANNA. AT SAN LUIS.— ~ 
SCOTT COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. — PLAN OF ATTACK ON THE EAST 
COAST. — GENERAL SCOTT’S PLAN. — DONIPHAN’S EXPEDITION. 
— BRACITO — SACRAMENTO. — REVOLT IN NEW MEXICO. — 
MURDER OF RICHIE.— SELECTION OF BATTLE GROUND — DE- 
SCRIPTION OF IT.— BATTLE OF ANGOSTURA OR BUENA VISTA. 
— MEXICAN RETREAT — TOBASCO — TAMPICO. 


WE return from the theatre of these military operations on the 
shores of the Pacific, to the valley of the Rio Grande and the head- 
quarters of General Taylor. The armistice at Monterey had 
ceased by the order of our government, and the commander of our 
forces, leaving Generals Worth and Butler at Monterey and Sal- 
tillo which had been seized, hastened with a sufficient body of 
troops to the gulf for the purpose of occupying ‘Tampico, the capi 
tal of the state of Tamaulipas. But he did not advance further 
than Victoria, when he found that Tampico had surrendered to 
Commodore Conner on the 14th of November. 

In the meanwhile the political aspect of Mexico was changed 
under the rule of Santa Anna who had returned to power, though 
he had not realized the hopes of our president by acceding to an 
honorable peace. A secret movement that was made by an agent 
sent into the country proved altogether unsuccessful, for the people 
were aroused against this union, and would listen, willingly, to no 
advances for accommodation. Santa Anna, cautiously noted the 
national feeling, and, being altogether unable to control or modify 
it, — although he studiously refrained from committing himself 
prior to his return to the capital, — he resolved to place himself at 
the head of the popular movement in defence of the northern fron- 
tier. Accordingly, in December, 1846, he had already assembled 
a large force, amounting to twenty thousand men, at San Luis 
Potosi, the capital of the state of that name south of Monterey, on 
the direct road to the heart of the internal provinces, and nearly 
midway between the gulf and the Pacific. 

The news of this hostile gathering which was evidently designed 


PLAN OF ATTACK ON THE EAST COAST. Re 


to assail our Army of Occupation, soon reached the officers who had 
been left in command at our headquarters during Taylor’s absence; 
and, in consequence of a despatch sent by express to General 
Wool at Parras for reinforcements, that officer immediately put his 
whole column in motion, and, after marching one hundred and 
twenty miles in four days, found himself at Agua Nueva, within 
twenty-one miles of Saltillo. Thus sustained, the officers in com- 
mand, awaited with anxiety, the movements of the.Mexican chief 
and the return of General Taylor. 

But, in the meantime, the administration at home, seeing the 
inutility of continuing the attacks upon the more northern outposts 
of Mexico, — which it was, nevertheless, resolved to hold as in- 
demnifying hostages, inasmuch as they were contiguous to our own 
soul and boundaries, — determined to strike a blow at the vitals of 
Mexico by seizing her principal eastern port and proceeding 
thence to the capital. For this purpose, General Scott, who had 
been set aside at the commencement of the war in consequence of 
a rupture between himself and the war department whilst arranging 
the details of the campaign, — was once more summoned into the 
field and appointed cormmander-in-chief of the American army in 
Mexico. Up to this period, November, 1846, large recruits of 
regulars and volunteers had flocked to the standard of Taylor and 
were stationed at various posts in the valley of the Rio Grande, 
under the command of Generals Butler, Worth, Patterson, Quit- 
man and Pillow. But the project of a descent upon Vera Cruz, 
which was warmly advocated by General Scott, made it necessary 
to detach a considerable portion of these levies, and of their most 
efficient and best drilled members. ‘Taylor and his subordinate 
commanders, were thus, placed in a mere defensive position, and 
that, too, at a moment when they were threatened in front by the 
best army that had been assembled for many a year in Mexico. 

It is probable that the government of the United States, at the 
moment it planned this expedition to Vera Cruz and the capital, 
was not fully apprised of the able and efficient arrangements of 
Santa Anna, or imagined that he would immediately quit San 
Luis Potosi in order to defend the eastern access to the capital, 
inasmuch as it was not probable that Taylor would venture to 
penetrate the country with impaired forces, which, in a strictly 
military point of view, were not more than adequate for garrison 
service along an extended base of three hundred miles. But, 
as the sequel showed, they neither estimated properly the time 
that would be consumed in concentrating the forces and pre- 


352 GENERARL SCOTT’S PLAN — DONIPHAN’S EXPEDITION. 


paring the means for their transportation to Vera Cruz, nor 
judged correctly of the military skill of Santa Anna, who naturally 


preferred to crush the weak northern foe with his overwhelming 


force than to encounter the strong battalions of veterans who were 
to be led against him on the east by the most brilliant captain of 
our country. 

‘The enterprise of General Scott was. one of extraordinary mag- 
nitude and responsibility. With his usual foresight he determined 
that he would not advance until the expedition was perfectly com- 
plete in every essential of certain success. Nothing was permitted 
to disturb his equanimity or patient resolution in carrying out the 
scheme as he thought best. He weighed all the dangers and all 
the difficulties of the adventure, and placed no reliance upon the 
supposed weakness of the enemy. This was the true, soldier-like 
view of the splendid project; and if, at the time, men were found 
inconsiderate encugh to blame him for procrastinating dalliance, 
the glorious result of his enterprise repaid him for all the petty 
sneers and misconceptions with which his discretion was under- 
valued by the carpet knights at home. There is but one point 
upon which we feel justified in disagreeing with his plan of cam- 
paign. He should not have weakened the command of General 
Taylor in the face of Santa Anna’s army. It was almost an invi- 
tation to that chief for an attack upon the valley of the Rio Grande; 
and had the Army of Occupation been effectually destroyed at Buena 
Vista, scarcely an American would have remained, throughout 
the long line of Taylor’s base, to tell the tale of cruelties perpe- 
trated by the flushed and revengeful victors. 


Whilst events were maturing and preparations making in the 
valley of the Rio Grande and the island of Lobos, we shall direct 
our attention again for a short time to the central regions of the 
north of Mexico in the neighborhood of Santa Fé. 

A considerable force of Missourians had been organized under 
the command of Colonel Doniphan, and marched to New Mexico, 
whence it was designed to despatch him towards Chihuahua. 
Soon after General Kearney’s departure from Santa Fé for Cali- 
fornia, Colonel Price, who was subsequently raised to the rank of 
general, reached that post with his western recruits and took com- 
mand, whilst Doniphan was directed, by orders from Kearney, 
dated near La Joya, to advance with his regiment against the 
Navajo Indians, who had threatened with war the New Mexi- 
cans, now under our protection. He performed this service suc- 


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BRACITO — SACRAMENTO — REVOLT IN NEW MEXICO. 353 


cessfully; and, on the 22d of November, 1846, made a treaty 
with the chiefs, binding them to live in amity with the Spaniards 
and Americans. Reassembling all his troops at Val Verde, he 
commenced his march to the south, in the middle of December, 
and, after incredible difficulties and great sufferings from inadequate 
supplies and equipments he reached Chihuahua, fighting, on the 
march, two successful actions against the Mexicans at Bracito, and 
Sacramento. Having completely routed the enemy in the latter 
contest, Chihuahua fell into his power. Here he tarried, recruiting 
his toil-worn band, for six weeks, and, as the spring opened, 
pushed onwards to the south until he reached the headquarters of 
Taylor, whence he returned with his regiment to the United States. 
His army marched five thousand miles during the campaign, and 
its adventures form one of the most romantic ep!sodes in the war 
with Mexico. 

Whilst Doniphan was advancing southward, the command of 
Price was well nigh destroyed in New Mexico and the wild region 
intervening between its borders and the frontiers of the United 
States. A conspiracy had been secretly organized, among the 
Mexican and half-breed population, to rise against the Americans. 
On the 19th of January, 1847, massacres occurred, simultaneously, 
at Taos, Arroyo Hondo, Rio Colorado and Mora. At Taos, 
Governor Charles Bent, one of the oldest and most experienced 
residents in that region was cruelly slain, and a great deal of valu- 
able property destroyed by the merciless foe. Price received intel- 
ligence of this onslaught on the 20th, and rapidly calling in his 
outposts, marched with a hastily gathered band of about three 
hundred and fifty men against the enemy, whom he met, attacked 
and overawed on the 24th, at Cafiada. Reinforced by Captain 
Burgwin from Alburquerque, he again advanced against the insur- 
gents; and on the 28th, defeated a Mexican force estimated at fif- 
teen hundred, at the pass of El] Embudo. Passing, thence, over 
the Taos mountain, through deep snows, in midwinter, the resolute 
commander pursued his way unmolested through the deserted set- 
tlement which had been recently ravaged by the rebels, nor did he 
encounter another force until he came upon the enemy at Pueblo, 
when he stormed the fortified position, and gained the day but 
with the loss of the gallant Burgwin and other valuable officers. 
Mora was reduced again to subjection, early in February, by Cap- 
tain Morin ; and, in all these rapid but successful actions, it is esti- 
mated that near three hundred Mexicans paid the forfeit of their lives 
for the cruel conspiracy and its fatal results. 


354 MURDER OF RICHIE— SELECTION OF BATTLE GROUND. 


From this moment the tenure of our possessions in New Mexico 
was no longer considered secure. The troops in that district were 
not the best disciplined or most docile in the army, and, to the 
dangers of another sudden outbreak among the treacherous Mexi- 
cans, was added the fear of a sudden rising among the Indian 
tribes who were naturally anxious to find any pretext or chance for 
ridding the country of a foe whom they feared far more, as a per- 
manent neighbor, than the comparatively feeble half-breeds and 
Mexicans. 

In December of 1846, Lieutenant Richie, who bore despatches 
to Taylor apprising him of the meditated attack upon Vera Cruz, 
was seized and slain by the Mexicans whilst on his way to the 
headquarters, and, thus, Santa Anna became possessed of the plan 
of the proposed campaign. The Army of Occupation had been 
sadly impaired by the abstraction of its best material for future ac- 
tion on the southern line under the commander-in-chief. But 
General Taylor resolved at once to face the danger stoutly, and to 
manifest no symptom of unsoldierlike querulousness under the in- 
justice he experienced from the government. Nevertheless, — 
prudent in all things, and foreseeing the danger of his command, of 
the lower country, and of the morale of the whole army, in the 
event of his defeat, — he exposed the error of the war department 
in his despatches to the adjutant general and secretary, so that 
history, if not arms, might eventually do justice to his discretion 
and fortitude. 

The note of preparation preceded, for some time, the actual ad- 
vent of Santa Anna from San Luis Potosi, and all was bustle in 
the American encampments which were spread from Monterey to 
Agua Nueva beyond Saltillo, in order to give him the best possible 
reception under the circumstances. Wool was encamped with a 
force at Agua Nueva, in advance on the road from Saltillo to San 
Luis, about thirteen miles from the pass of Angostura, where the 
road lies through a mountain gorge, defended, on one side, by a 
small table land near the acclivities of the steep sierra and cut with 
the channels of rough barrancas or ravines worn by the waters as 
they descend from the summits, and, on the other by an exten- 
sive net work of deep and impassable gullies which drained the 
slopes of the western spurs. 

This spot was decided upon, as the battle ground in the event 
of an attack, and the encampment at Agua Nueva, in front of it 
was kept up as an extreme outpost, whence the scouts might be 
sent forth to watch the approach of Santa Anna. 


DESCRIPTION OF IT. 355 


On the 21st of February, the positive advance of that chief was 
announced. The camp was immediately broken up, and all our 
forces rapidly concentrated in the gorge of Angostura. Our troops 
did not amount to more than four thousand six hundred and ninety 
efficient men, while we had reason to believe that Santa Anna 
commanded nearly five times that number and was greatly superior 
to us in cavalry, a part of which, had been sent by secret paths 
through the mountains, to the rear of our position, so as to cut off 
our retreat, in the event of our failure in the battle. 

The great object of Taylor in selecting his ground and forming 
his plan of battle, was to make his small army equal, as near as 
possible, to that of Santa Anna, by narrowing the front of attack, 
and thus concentrating his force upon any point through which the 
Mexicans might seek to break. In other words, it was his design 
to dam up the strait of Angostura with a living mass, and to leave 
no portion of the unbroken ground on the narrow table-land unde- 
fended by infantry and artillery. The battle ground that had been 
selected was admirably calculated for this purpose; and his fore- 
sight was justified by the result. It was not necessary for Taylor 
to capture, or annihilate his enemy, for he was victor, if with, but 
a single regiment, he kept the valley closed against the Mexicans. 
The centre of the American line was the main road, in which was 
placed a battery of eight pieces, reduced, during the action to five, 
supported by bodies of infantry. On the right of the stream, which 
swept along the edge of the western mountains, was a single regi- 
ment and some cavalry, with two guns, which it was supposed, 
would be sufficient, with the aid of the tangled gulleys to arrest the 
Mexicans in that quarter. On the left of the stream, where the 
ravines were fewer, and the plain between them wider, stood two 
regiments of infantry, suitably furnished with artillery, and extend- 
ing from the central battery on the road, to the base of the eastern 
mountains, on whose skirts an adequate force of cavalry and rifle- 
men was posted. 

In order to break this array, Santa Anna divided his army into 
three attacking columns, each of which nearly doubled the whole of 
Taylor’s force. One of these, was opposed to the battery of eight 
guns in order to force the road, and the other two were designed to 
outflank our position by penetrating or turning the squadrons 
stationed at the base of the mountains. 

On the afternoon of the 22d of February, the attack began by a 
skirmishing attempt to pass to the rear of our left wing; but as the 
Mexicans climbed the mountain, in their endeavor to outflank us 


356 BATTLE OF ANGOSTURA OR BUENA VISTA. 


in that quarter, they were opposed by our infantry and riflemen, 
who disputed successfully every inch of ground, until night closed 
and obliged the Mexicans to retire. General Taylor, fearing an 
attack from the cavalry upon Saltillo, immediately departed with a 
suitable escort to provide for its safety, and left General Wool to 
command during his absence. 

After day dawn, on the 23d, Santa Anna again commenced the 
battle, by an attack upon the left wing, and, for a while, was with- 
stood, until a portion of our forces, after a brave defenee, mistaking 
an order to retire, for an order to retreat, became suddenly panic- 
struck, and fled from the field. At this moment, Taylor returned 
from Saltillo, and found the whole left of our position broken, 
whilst the enemy was pouring his masses of infantry and cavalry 
along the base of the eastern mountains towards our rear. 

Meanwhile the battery in the road had repulsed the Mexican 
column sent against it, and spared three of its guns for service on 
the upper plain. The regiment, on the right of the stream, had 
been brought over to the left bank with its cannons, and was now, 
in position with two other regiments, facing the mountains, be- 
tween which and this force, was a gap, through whose opening, 
the Mexicans steadily advanced under a dreadful fire. Nearly all 
the artillery had been concentrated at the same place, while, in 
other parts of the field and nearer to the hacienda of Buena Vista, 
in the American rear, were bodies of our cavalry, engaged in con- 
flict with the advancing foe. 

As Taylor approached this disastrous scene, he met the fugitives, 
and speedily made his dispositions to stop the carnage. With a 
regiment from Mississippi, he restrained a charge of Mexican cav- 
alry, and ordered all the artillery, save four guns, to the rear to 
drive back the exulting Mexicans. ‘This manceuvre was perfectly 
successful, and, so dreadfully was the enemy cut up by the new 
attack, that Santa Anna, availed himself of a ruse, by a flag of 
truce, in order to suspend the action, whilst he withdrew his men. 

The transfer of so large a portion of Taylor’s most efficient 
troops to the rear of his original line, had greatly weakened his 
front, in the best positions, where the inequalities of ground sus- 
tained his feeble numbers. Santa Anna was not unmindful of the 
advantage he had gained by these untoward ‘events, and prepared 
all his best reserves, which were now brought for the first time into 
action, for another attack. Taylor had with him three regiments 
and four pieces of artillery. His front was rather towards the 
mountain than the open pass, while his back was towards the road 


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MEXICAN RETREAT — TOBASCO — TAMPICO. 519 


along the stream. On his right was the whole Mexican army; on 
his left, far off in the rear, were the troops that had repulsed and 
cut up the Mexican column ; and the great effort, upon whose suc- 
cess all depended, was to bring these dispersed squadrons again 
into action, whilst he maintained the position against the assault 
of the fresh reserves. As Santa Anna advanced with his inspirited 
columns, he was met by regiments of infantry, which stood firm, 
until, overwhelmed by numbers and driven into a ravine, they 
were cruelly slaughtered. After the American infantry had been 
overcome, the last hope was in the artillery, and, with this, the 
Mexican advance was effectually stopped and the battle won. 

The whole day had been spent in fighting, and when night 
came, the field was covered with dead. It was an anxious season 
for our battered troops, and whilst all were solicitous for the event 
of a contest, which it was supposed would be renewed on the mor- 
row, the greatest efforts were not only made to inspirit the troops 
who had borne the brunt of two days’ battle, but to bring up rein- 
forcements of artillery and cavalry that had been stationed between 
Saltillo and Monterey. At day dawn, however, on the 24th, the 
enemy was found to have retreated. 

This wonderful battle saved the north of Mexico and the valley 
of the Rio Grande; for Mifion and Urrea were already in our rear 
with regular troops and bands of rancheros, ready to cut up our 
flying army, and descend upon our slender garrisons. Urrea cap- 
tured a valuable wagon train at Ramos, in the neighborhood of 
Monterey. From the 22d to the 26th of February, he continually 
threatened our weakened outposts, and from that period until the 
7th of March inflicted severe injuries upon our trains and convoys 
from the gulf. In the meantime Santa Anna retreated to San Luis 
Potosi with the fragments of his fine army, and not long after, 
General Taylor retired from a field of service, in which he was no 
longer permitted to advance, or required except for garrison duty. 


In the months of October and November, 1846, Tobasco and 
Tampico had yielded to our navy ; the former after a severe attack 
conducted by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and the latter with- 
out bloodshed. 


46 


CHAPTER XI. 
1846 — 1847. 


SANTA ANNA’S RETURN —CHANGES HIS PRINCIPLES. — SALAS 
EXECUTIVE. —CONSTITUTION OF 1824 RESTORED — PAREDES. 
— PLANS OF SALAS AND SANTA ANNA —HIS LETTER TO AL- 
MONTE — HIS VIEWS OF THE WAR — REFUSES THE DICTATOR- 
SHIP — COMMANDS THE ARMY. — STATE OF PARTIES IN MEX- 
ICO — PUROS — MODERADOS— SANTA ANNA AT SAN LUIS. — 
PEACE PROPOSITIONS — INTERNAL TROUBLES. — FARIAS’S CON- 
TROVERSY WITH THE CHURCH.—POLKO REVOLUTION IN THE 
CAPITAL—VICE PRESIDENCY SUPPRE.SSED—IMPORTANT DECREE. 


Wuen General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna landed from the 
steamer Arab, after having been permitted to pass the line of our 
blockading fleet at Vera Cruz he was received by only a few 
friends. His reception was in fact not a public one, nor marked 
by enthusiasm. 

By the revolution which overthrew Paredes, General Salas came 
into the exercise of the chief executive authority, and as soon as 
Santa Anna arrived he despatched three high officers to welcome 
him, among whom was Valentin Gomez Farias, a renowned 
leader of the federalist party, in former days a bitter foe of the 
exiled chief. Santa Anna, in his communications with the revolu- 
tionists from Cuba, had confessed his political mistake, in former 
years, in advocating the central system. ‘The love of provincial 
liberty,’’ said he, in a letter to a friend dated in Havana on the 8th 
of March, 1846, ‘‘ being firmly rooted in the minds of all, and the 
democratic principle predominating every where, nothing can be 
established in a solid manner in the country, which does not con- 
form to these tendencies, nor can we without them attain either 
order, peace, prosperity or respectability among foreign nations. 

‘¢' To draw every thing to the centre, and thus to give unity of 
action to the republic as I at one time deemed best, is no longer 
possible; nay, more, I say itis dangerous; it is contrary to the 
object I proposed to myself in the unitarian system, because we 
thereby expose ourselves to the separation of the northern depart- 
ments which are most clamorous for freedom of internal administra- 
tion. * * * * JT therefore urge you to use all your influence 
to reconcile the liberals, communicating with Sefior Farias and his 


CONSTITUTION OF 1824 RESTORED — PAREDES. 359 


friends, in order to induce them to come to an understanding with 
fe CCC:C<‘ités~ = *dT:Cwill in future, ‘support the claims of the 
masses; leaving the people entirely at liberty to organize their 
system of government and to regulate their offices in a manner that 
may please them best.” 

’ These declarations, and the knowledge of Santa Anna’s sagacity 
and influence with the masses had probably induced Farias to ad- 
here to the project of his recall which was embraced in the move- 
ments of the revolutionists. And, accordingly, we find that upon 
his landing, Santa Anna published a long manifesto to the people 
which he concludes by recommending that, until they proclaim a 
new constitution, the federal constitution of 1824 be readopted for 
the internal administration of the country. 

Salas, who had previously ordered the governors of the depart- 
ments to be guided solely by the commands of Santa Anna, imme- 
diately issued a bando nacional, or edict, countersigned by the act- 
ing secretary of state, Monasterio, which embodied the views of the 
returned exile, and proclaimed the constitution of 1824, in accord- 
ance with his recommendation. 

Paredes, meanwhile, who had been taken prisoner on the 5th of 
August, 1846, whilst attempting to fly the country, was held in 
close confinement at the castle of Perote. Some persons proposed 
to treat him severely in consequence of his monarchical notions ; 
but Salas averted dexterously all the spiteful blows that were aimed 
at him, and he was finally allowed to retire to Europe, where he 
remained until a later period of the war, when he returned to yield 
no significant services to his invaded country. Since the termina- 
tion of the contest he has paid the great debt of nature, on his 
native soil, and a merciful pen will conceal the faults of a mixed 
nature which was not unadorned. by virtues, and, under other cir- 
cumstances and with different habits, might have made him a use- 
ful ruler in Mexico. 


General Salas, who exercised supreme command from the 7th to 
to the 20th of August, professed to have done as little as possible 
of his own will, and only what was urgently demanded by the ne- 
cessity of the case. He boasted, however, that he had effected 
what he could ‘‘to aid the brave men who, in Monterey, have 
determined to die rather than succumb to the invasion and _ per- 
fidiousness of the Americans.’ In his communications to Santa 
Anna he urged him to hasten to Mexico as soon as possible to as- 
sume his powers, and the Mexican gazettes commend him for re- 


360 PLANS OF SALAS AND SANTA ANNA. 


fusing to accept the pay of president while discharging the func- 
tions of his office. 

On the 15th of August, Salas issued a proclamation, in which he 
announced to his countrymen that a new insult had been offered to 
them, and that another act of baseness had been perpetrated by the 
Americans. He alluded to the Californias, which, he said, ‘the 
Americans have now seized by the strong hand, after having vil- 
lanously robbed us of 'Texas.’” He announced that the expedition 
which had been so long preparing would set forth in two days for 
the recovery of the country, and that measures would be taken to 
arrange the differences existing between the people of the Califor- 
nias and the various preceding central administrations. In con- 
clusion, he appealed eloquently to the Californians to second with 
their best exertions the attempt. which would be made to drive out 
the Americans, and to unite their rich and fertile territories forever 
to the Republic. 

During the administration of this chief, various proclamations 
were issued to arouse the people to take part in the war, by en- 
listing and by contributing their means. Efforts were also made 
to organize the local militia, but with little effect. 

Santa Anna, in his reply to Salas on the 20th of August, accepts 
the trust which is formally devolved upon him, and approves of the 
acts of the latter, especially in sending forward all the troops to 
Monterey, New Mexico, and California, and in summoning a Con- 
gress for the 6th of December. These, he says, are the two first 
wants of the nation, the formation of a constitution for the country, 
and the purification of the soil of the country from foreign invaders. 
These ends gained, he will gladly lay down his power. “ My 
functions will cease,”’ he says, ‘‘ when I have established the nation 
in its rights; when I see its destinies controled by its legitimate 
representatives, and when I may be able, by the blessing of heaven, 
to lay at the feet of the national representatives laurels plucked on 
the banks of the Sabine —all of which must be due to the force 
and the will of the Mexican people.” 

Santa Anna at length quitted his hacienda, where he had doubt- 
less been waiting for the opportune moment to arrive when he 
could best exhibit himself to the inhabitants of the capital, and pro- 
fit by their highest enthusiasm, pushed to an extreme by alternate 
hopes and fears. On the 14th of September he reached Ayotla, a 
small town distant twenty-five miles from the city of Mexico. 
Here he received a communication from Almonte, the secre- 
tary of war, ad interim, proposing to him the supreme executive 


HIS LETTER TO ALMONTE. 361 


power, or dictatorship. This offer was made on the part of the 
provisional government. 

Santa Anna immediately replied in the following strain to the 
missive of his partizan: 

General Sanra Anna, commander-in-chief of the Liberating Army, 
to General ALMonTeE, minister of war of the republic of Mexico. 
AyotTua, 1 o’clock, A. M., Sept. 14, 1846. 

Srr: I have received your favor of this date, acknowledging a 
decree issued by the supreme government of the nation, embracing 
a programme of the proceedings adopted to regulate a due celebra- 
tion of the re-establishment of the constitution of 1824, the as- 
sumption by myself of the supreme executive power, and the anni- 
versary of the glorious grito of Dolores. 

My satisfaction is extreme to observe the enthusiasm with which 
preparations are made to celebrate the two great blessings which 
have fallen upon this nation — her independence and her liberty — 
and I am penetrated with the deepest gratitude to find that my ar- 
rival at the capital will be made to contribute to the solemnities of 
so great an occasion. In furtherance of this object I shall make 
my entrée into that city to-morrow at mid-day, and desire, in con- 
tributing my share to the national jubilee, to observe such a course 
as may best accord with my duties to my country — beloved of my 
heart—and with the respect due to the will of the sovereign people. 

I have been called by the voice of my fellow-citizens to exercise 
the office of commander-in-chief of the army of the republic. I 
was far from my native land when intelligence of this renewed con- 
fidence, and of these new obligations imposed upon me by my coun- 
try was brought to me, and I saw that the imminent dangers which 
surrounded her on all sides, formed the chief motive for calling me 
to the head of the army. I now see a terrible contest with a per- 
fidious and daring enemy impending over her, in which the Mexican 
republic must reconquer the insignia of her glory and a fortunate 
issue, if victorious, or disappear from the face of the earth, if so 
unfortunate as to be defeated. I also see a treacherous faction 
raising its head from her bosom, which, in calling up a form of 
government detested by the united nation, provokes a preferable 
submission to foreign dominion; and I behold, at last, that after 
much vacillation, that nation is resolved to establish her right to 
act for herself, and to arrange such a form of government as best 
suits her wishes. 

All this I have observed, and turned a listening ear to the cry of 
my desolated country, satisfied that she really needed my weak 


362 HIS VIEWS OF THE WAR—REFUSES THE 


services at so important a period. Hence I have come, without © 
hesitation or delay, to place myself in subjection to her will; and, 
desirous to be perfectly understood, upon reaching my native soil, 
I gave a full and public expression of my sentiments and principles. 
The reception which they met convinced me that I had not de- 
ceived myself, and I am now the more confirmed in them, not from 
having given them more consideration, but because they have found 
a general echo in the hearts of my fellow-citizens. 

I come, then, to carry my views into operation, and in compli- 
ance with the mandate of my country. She calls me as comman- 
der-in-chief of the army, and in that capacity I stand ready to 
serve. ‘The enemy occupies our harbors —he is despoiling us of 
the richest of our territories, and threatens us with his domination ! 
I go, then, to the head of the Mexican army—an army the off- 
spring of a free people — and joined with it, I will fulfil my utmost 
duty in opposing the enemies of my country. I will die fighting, 
or lead the valiant Mexicans to the enjoyment of a triumph to 
which they are alike entitled by justice, by their warlike character, 
and by the dignity and enthusiasm which they have preserved, of a 
free nation. The war is a necessity of immediate importance ; 
every day’s delay is an age of infamy; I cannot recede from the 
position which the nation has assigned me; I must go forward, 
unless I would draw upon myself the censure due to ingratitude for 
the favors with which I have been overwhelmed by my fellow- 
citizens; or, unless I would behold her humbled and suffering 
under a perpetuation of her misfortunes. 

Your excellency will at once perceive how great an error I 
should commit in assuming the supreme magistracy, when my duty 
calls me to the field, to fight against the enemies of the republic. 
I should disgrace myself, if, when called to the point of danger, I 
should spring to that of power! Neither my loyalty normy honor 
requires the abandonment of interests so dear to me. ‘The single 
motive of my heart is to offer my compatriots the sacrifice of that 
blood which yet runs in my veins. I wish them to know that I 
consecrate myself entirely to their service, as a soldier ought to do, 
and am only desirous further to be permitted to point out the course 
by which Mexico may attain the rank to which her destinies call her. 

In marching against the enemy, and declining to accept pow- 
er, I give a proof of the sincerity of my sentiments; leaving the 
nation her own mistress, at liberty «to dispose of herself as she 
sees fit. The elections for members of a congress to form the con- 
stitution which the people wish to adopt, are proceeding. That 


DICTATORSHIP — COMMANDS THE ARMY. 363 


congress will now soon convene, and while I shall be engaged in 
the conflict in armed defence of her independence, the nation will 
place such safeguards around her liberties as may best suit herself. 

If I should permit myself for a single moment, to take the reins 
- of government, the sincerity of my promises would be rendered 
guestionable, and no confidence could be placed in them. 

I am resolved that they shall not be falsified, for in their redemp- 
tion I behold the general good, as well as my honor as a Mexican 
and a soldier. I cannot abandon this position. The existing 
government has pursued a course with which the nation has shown 
itself content, and I have no desire to subvert it by taking its place. 
I feel abundant pleasure in remaining where I am, and flatter my- 
self that the nation will applaud my choice. I shall joyfully accept 
such tasks as she shall continue to impose upon me; and while she 
is engaged in promoting the objects of civilization, I will brave 
every danger in supporting its benefits, even at the cost of my 
existence. 

Will your excellency have the goodness to tender to the supreme 
government my sincere thanks for their kindness? I will person 
ally repeat them to-morrow, for which purpose I propose to call at 
the palace. I shall there embrace my friends, and hastily pressing 
them to my heart, bid them a tender farewell, and set out to the 
scene of war, to lend my aid to serve my country, or to perish 
among its ruins. 

I beg to repeat to your excellency assurances of my continued 
coe 2 esteem. Antonio Lopez DE Santa ANNA. 

On the 15th of September, Santa Anna arrived at the capital, 
amid rejoicings more enthusiastic than had ever been witnessed 
before. ‘The people seemed to behold in him their saviour, and 
were almost frantic with joy. The testimonies of attachment to 
his person were unbounded, and the next day the most vigorous 
measures, so far as declarations go, were adopted by the provision- 
al government. 

A levy of thirty thousand men to recruit the army was ordered. 
Requisitions were forthwith transmitted to all the principal places 
in the republic, for their respective quotas of men. Puebla, and 
the whole of the towns within a circuit of fifty or sixty leagues of 
the metropolis, are stated to have complied with the requisition for 
troops, with the greatest alacrity. To facilitate the arming and 
equipping of this large body, the government ordered that duties 
on all munitions of war shall cease to be levied, until further notice. 


364 STATE OF PARTIES IN MEXICO — PUROS. 


Santa Anna was thus once more in the capital and effectually at 
the head of power; but he remained only a short time to attend to 
political matters, and dreading, doubtless, to assume openly the 


management of the government or to trust himself away from the , 


protection of the military, he hastened to surround his person with 
the army ;— as commander-in-chief, he effectually controled all 
the departments of the government. 


In order to perceive distinctly the perilous position of Santa 


Anna, we must understand the state of parties in Mexico. The 
revolution which placed him in power was brought about by a 
union of the federalists with his partizans. Santa Anna, of course, 
retained an influence over his adherents after arriving in Mexico; 
but the federalists were divided into two parties —the Puros and 
Moderados, or, democrats and conservatives. The dissensions in 
these sections enabled Santa Anna, in a degree, to hold the balance 
between them. Saxas, the acting executive, was a conservative, 
and Gomez Farias, president of the'council of government, was a 
democrat. Intrigue after intrigue occurred in the cabinet and 
elsewhere among the ultras to supplant Salas, and several resigna- 
tions gave evidence of the ill feeling and dissensions betwixt the 
ministers — Cortina and Pacheco, both conservatives, resigned — 
and so did Rejon and Farias. The National Guard intimated its 
discontent with the condition of things very manifestly, and the 
new cabinet was filled with old enemies of Santa Anna. Mean- 
while Almonte, the ablest man in the country, retained the ministry 
of war. — 

About this time the state of San Luis Potosi pronounced against 
the presidency of General Salas, demanding that General Santa 
Anna should assume the executive functions, or that some one 
should be named by him. As a precaution against the apprehend- 
ed attempts upon his life, Salas retired on the 25th of October from 
the capital to Tacubaya. The greater part of the permanent garri- 
son of the capital took up its quarters in the same place. Santa 
Anna was probably determined that General Salas should not 
obtain too absolute an ascendancy. Report said that Salas was 
honest enough to attempt to carry into effect all the guaranties of 
the revolution of Jalisco and the citadel, and that his policy did not 
suit the chief; but Santa Anna professed to act in the utmost har- 
mony with him. 

This outbreak against the provisional government of General 
Salas was soon suppressed, and Santa Anna remained in command 
of the army at San Luis Potosi, but without making any attack 


MODERADOS — SANTA ANNA AT SAN LUIS. 365 


upon our forces on the Rio Grande after the defeat of Ampudia at 
Monterey, or endeavoring to prevent our subsequent capture of 
Victoria and Tampico. 

On the 23d of December congress voted, by states, for provisional 
president and vice president. Each state had one vote in this elec- 
tion, determined by the majority of its deputies. Twenty-two 
states voted, including the federal district of Mexico, and two ter- 
ritories. Santa Anna’s opponent, Francisco Elorriega, was the 
choice of nine states, and Gomez Farias was elected vice presi- 
dent. The day before the election the members of the cabinet 
threw up their portfolios ; and, in the midst of his evident political 
unpopularity with the politicians Santa Anna.seems to have been 
left by the authorities at San Luis Potosi with an army destitute of 
efficient arms, of military knowledge, and of the means of support. 
Santa Anna accepted the provisional presidency. 

Meanwhile our army had been advancing steadily since the bat- 
tles of Resaca de la Palma and Palo Alto on the 8th and 9th of 
May, 1846. California had fallen into our hands, and New Mexico 
had been subjugated. ‘Tampico was, also, ours, and Taylor had 
pushed his victorious army to Saltillo. Santa Anna stood, at bay, 
in San Luis Potosi; for he was not yet prepared to fight, and 
popular opinion would not permit him to negotiate. In this forlorn 
condition he resorted to the usual occupation of the Mexican gov- 
ernment when in distress, and issued, despatch after despatch to 
stimulate congress, the cabinet and the people in the lingering war. 


Nor was the government of the United States, meanwhile, inatten- 
tive to this position of affairs in Mexico, or indisposed to afford the 
government an opportunity to reconcile our difficulties by negotia- 
tion. Two distinct efforts were made by Mr. Buchanan, our secre- 
tary of state in the summer of 1846, and in January, 1847; but 
both proved abortive, and we were therefore obliged to continue 
hostilities. 

At length, when Santa Anna perceived the enfeebled condition 
of General Taylor, and believed that Scott would be for a long 
time hindered from effecting his attack upon Vera Cruz, he marched 
to Buena Vista and experienced the sad reverse which we have al- 
ready recounted. As soon as the battle was over the wily and 
discomfited chief immediately began to repair the losses of his 
arms by the eloquence and adroitness of his pen. In a long ac- 
count of the battle he treats the affair as almost a victory, and 


leaves the public mind of Mexico in doubt as to whether he had 
47 


366 PEACE PROPOSITIONS — INTERNAL TROUBLES. 


been beaten or victorious. The few trophies, taken in the saddest 
moments of the action, were sent in triumph to the interior and 
paraded as the spolia opima in San Luis and the city of Mexico. 
The public men of the country knew that Angostura had in reality 
been lost, and Minion who was seriously assailed in the press by 
Santa Anna for not co-operating at the critical moment, published 
a reply in which he treated Santa Anna in the plainest terms and 
denounced, as false, the general’s statement that his troops were 
famishing for food on the 24th of February, and that his failure to 
destroy Taylor’s army was only owing to this important fact! 
This system of mutual denunciation and recrimination was quite 
common in Mexico, whenever a defeat was to be accounted for or 
thrown on the shoulders of an individual who was not in reality 
answerable for it. 

When Santa Anna returned to San Luis Potosi, he entered that 
city with not one half the army that accompanied him on his de- 
parture to the north. It was moreover worn out and disorganized 
by the long and painful march over the bleak desert, and had en- 
tirely lost its habit of discipline. Such was the condition of things 
at San Luis in the month of March, when Santa Anna found him- 
self compelled to organize another force to resist the enemy on the 
east ; but whilst his attention was diligently directed to this subject 
the sad news reached him, that Mexico was not only assailed from 
without, but that her capital was torn by internal dissensions. 

The peace between the president, and the vice president, Don 
Valentin Gomez Farias, had been cemented by the good offices 
of mutual friends, though it is not likely that any very ardent friend- 
ship could have sprung up suddenly between men whose politics 
had always been so widely variant. Nor was there less difference 
between the moral than the political character of these personages. 
Santa Anna, the selfish, arrogant military chieftain,—a man of 
unquestionable genius and talent for command, — had passed his 
life in spreading his sails to catch the popular breeze, and by his 
alliances with the two most powerful elements of Mexican society, 
— the army and the church, — had always contrived to sustain his 
eminent political position, or recover it when it was temporarily 
lost. Such was the case in his return to power after the invasion 
of the French, in the attack upon whom he fortunately lost a limb 
which became a constant capital upon which to trade in the cor- 
rupt but sentimental market of popular favor. Valentin Gomez 
Farias, on the contrary was a pure, straightforward, uncompro- 
mising patriot, always alive to the true progressive interests of the 


FARIAS’S CONTROVERSY WITH THE CHURCH. 367 


Mexican nation, and satisfied that these could only be secured by 

ythe successful imitation of our federal system, together with the 
destruction of the large standing army, and the release of the large 
church properties from the incubus of mortmain. 

There was much discontent in Mexico with the election of these 
two personages to the presidency and vice presidency. Reflecting 
men thought the union unnatural, and although the desperate times 
required desperate remedies, there was something so incongruous 
in the political alliance between Farias and Santa Anna, that little 
good could be expected to issue from it. The clergy were alarmed 
for its wealth, and the moderate party was frightened by the ha- 
bitual despotism of Santa Anna. The latter personage was in fact, 
regarded with more favor at the moment by all classes, than Farias, 
because the country had reason to believe him a man of action, and 
familiar in times of danger and distress, with all its resources of 
men and money; and as he was entirely occupied with the organi- 
zation and management of the army at San Luis, the opposition 
party directed all its blows against the administration of the vice 
presidency. 

A few days after the installation of the new government, the 
agitation of the mort-main question was commenced in congress. 
The Puro party united with the executive, made every effort to 
destroy the power of the clergy, by undermining the foundation of 
its wealth, while the Moderados became the supporters of the ec- 
clesiastics, under the lead of Don Mariano Otero. 

At length the law was passed, but it was nota frank and de- 
cided act, destroying at once the privileges of the clergy and de- 
claring their possessions to be the property of the republic. In 
fact it was a mere decree for the seizure of ecclesiastical incomes, 
which threatened the non-complying with heavy fines if they did 
not pay over to the civil authorities, the revenues which had for- 
merly been collected by the stewards of convents and monks. 

This act, comparatively mild as it was, and temporary as it 
might have been considered, did not satisfy the clergy, even in this 
moment of national peril. They resorted to the spiritual weapons 
which they reserved for extreme occasions. They fulminated ex- 
communications ; and published dreadful threats of punishment 
hereafter for the crime that had been committed by placing an im- 
pious hand upon wealth which they asserted belonged to God 
alone. This conduct of the religious orders had its desired effect 
not only among the people, but among the officers of government ; 
for the chief clerk of the finance department, Hurci, refused to 


368 POLKO REVOLUTION IN THE CAPITAL. 


sign the law, and it was sometime before a suitable person could 
be found to put the law in operation. Santa Anna adroitly kept. 
himself aloof from the controversy, and wrote from San Luis, that 
he merely desired support for the army, and that in other questions, 
especially those touching the clergy, he had no desire to enter, but 
would limit himself to the recommendation, that neither the canons, 
nor the collegiate establishment of Guadalupe, should be molested, 
inasmuch as he entertained the greatest friendship for the one, and 
the most reverential devotion for the other. 

But the executive, fixed in its intention to liberate the property 
held in mortmain, took every means to carry the law into effect, 
and experienced the utmost resistance from the incumbents, espe- 
cially when the property happened to belong to the female sex, 
which is always averse from intercourse or dealings with persons 
who are regarded as inimical to the church. 

This rigorous conduct of the executive, and the opposition it en- 
countered from the Moderados, fomented by that powerful, spirit- 
ual class which has so long controled the conscience of the 
masses, gave rise, at this period, to the outbreak in the capital, 
which is known as the revolution of the Polkos. It began on 
the 22d of February, 1847, in Mexico, whilst Santa Anna was 
firing the first guns at Angostura; and its great object was to 
drive Farias from executive power. ‘The forces on both sides, 
amounted to six thousand men, and were divided between the 
Polkos and the partizans of the government. Funds were found 
to support both factions, and from that time to the 21st of March, 
the city of Mexico was converted into a battle field. On the morn- 
ing of that day Santa Anna, who had already despatched a portion 
of his broken army towards the coast, and who had been ap- 
proached on his journey from the capital, by emissaries from both 
factions, arrived at Guadalupe, and immediately the contest 
ceased. The stewards of the convents refused to expend more 
money for the support of their partizans, and the treasury of the 
government was closed against its adherents. The personal in- 
fluence of Santa Anna thus put an end to a disgraceful rebellion 
which threatened the nationality of Mexico, within, whilst a 
foreign enemy was preparing to attack its most vital parts from 
the gulf. 

The conflict of arms was over, but the partizans of the clergy 
did not intermit their efforts to get rid of the obnoxious vice-presi- 
dent ; and at length, they effected pacifically, what they had been 
unable to do by force. 


VICE PRESIDENCY SUPPRESSED—IMPORTANT DECREE. 369 


They brought in a bill declaring that ‘‘ the vice presidency of 
the republic, created by the decree of the 21st December, 1846, 
should be suppressed.”? The debate upon this was of the most 
animated nature, the friends and enemies of Farias showing equal 
vehemence in sustaining their views. On the 31st day of March 
the vote was taken, and the proposition carried by a vote of thirty- 
eight to thirty-five. 

The following day a decree was passed embodying the above 
proposition and others: 

1. Permission is granted to the actual president of the republic 
to take command in person of the forces which the government 
may place under his command, to resist the foreign enemy. 

2. The vice presidency of the republic, established by the law 
of 21st December last, is suppressed. 

3. The place of the provisional president shall be filled by a 
substitute, named by congress according to the terms of the law 
just cited. 

4, If in this election the vote of the deputations should be tied, 
in place of determining the choice by lot, congress shall decide, 
voting by person. 7 

5. The functions of the substitute shall cease when the pro- 
visional president shall return to the exercise of power. 

6. On the 15th day of May next the legislatures of the states shall 
proceed to the election of a president of the republic, according to 
the form prescribed by the constitution of 1824, and with no other 
difference save voting for one individual only. 

7. The same legislatures shall at once transmit to the sovereign 
congress the result of the election in a certified despatch. 

This decree having been passed, it was at once signified to con- 
press, through a minister, that Santa Anna was desirous of assum- 
ing the command of the army immediately and marching to the 
east to provide for the national defence. Congress went at once 
into permanent session, in order to choose a substitute or the presi- 
dent. The election resulted in the choice of Sefior D. Pedro Anaya. 
He received sixty votes and General Almonte eleven, voting by 
persons, and eighteen votes against three, counting by deputa- 
tions. The result being promulgated, permission was granted that 
Sefior Anaya should at once take the oath of office. This was on 
the Ist of April, and on the 2d, Anaya entered upon his duties. He 
dispensed with the usual visits of congratulation and ceremony on. 
account of the pressure of public business, and Santa Anna left the 
capital for the army in the afternoon of the same day. 


CHAPTER XTI. 


1847. 


GENERAL SCOTT AT LOBOS—LANDING AT AND SIEGE OF VERA 
CRUZ—CAPITULATION AND CONDITION OF VERA CRUZ—CON- 
DITION OF MEXICO — ALVARADO, ETC., CAPTURED—SCOTT’S AD- 
VANCE—DESCRIPTION OF CERRO GORDO—MEXICAN DEFENCES 
AND MILITARY DISPOSAL THERE — BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. — 
PEROTE AND PUEBLA YIELD — SANTA ANNA RETURNS — CONSTI- 
TUTION OF 1824 READOPTED— MEXICAN POLITICS OF THE 
DAY — WAR SPIRIT — GUERILLAS — PEACE NEGOTIATIONS — 
TRIST — SANTA ANNA’S SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. 


Tux extraordinary genius of Santa Anna, and the influence he 
possessed over his countrymen were perhaps never more powerfully 
manifested than in the manner in which, amid all these disasters, he 
maintained his reputation and popularity, and gathered a new army 
to defend the eastern frontier of Mexico. But whilst he was en- 
gaged preparing in the interior, we must return to the scene of Gen- 
eral Scott’s operations on the coast. The small island of Lobos, 
about a hundred and twenty-five miles from Vera Cruz, had been 
selected for the rendezvous of the several corps which were to com- 
pose the American invading army; and the magnitude of the enter- 
prize may be estimated from the fact, that one hundred and sixty- 
three vessels were employed as transports. On the seventh of | 
March, Scott embarked his troops in the squadron under Commo- 
dore Connor, and on the ninth, landed the army upon the coast 
below the island of Sacrificios without the loss of a man, and with- 
out opposition from the neighboring city of Vera Cruz, which he 
summoned in vain to surrender. Having planted his batteries, and 
placed them under the command of Colonel Bankhead, as Chief of 
Artillery, he commenced a vigorous bombardment of the city on the 
eighteenth, aided, afloat and on shore, by the guns of the fleet which 
had been transferred from Commodore Connor to the command of 
Commodore Perry. ‘The town was thus invested by land and water, 
and although the Mexican castle, city walls and forts, were but poorly 
garrisoned and provided, they held out bravely during the terrible 
siege, which nearly converted Vera Cruz into a slaughter-house. 
On the morning of the twenty-sixth, when no hope remained for the 


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CAPITULATION AND CONDITION OF VERA CRUZ. Si! 


Mexicans, General Landero, the commander, made overtures for a 
capitulation, which being satisfactorily arranged, the principal com- 
mercial port, and the most renowned fortress in Mexico were sur- 
rendered, together with four hundred guns, five thousand stand of 
arms and as many prisoners who were released on parole. 

General Scott had endeavored to mitigate the dangers of this ter- 
rific attack upon Vera Cruz by the employment of such a force as 
would honorably satisfy the inefficient garrison of the town aud 
castle that it was in truth unable to cope with the American forces. 
He delayed opening his batteries to allow the escape of non-com- 
batants ; he refrained, moreover, from storming the town, a mode 
of assault in which multitudes would have fallen on both sides in 
the indiscriminate slaughter which always occurs when an enemy’s 
town is invaded in hot blood and with a reckless spirit of conquest 
and carnage. Yet, weak and badly provided as was the garrison 
of both strongholds, the walls of the city, its batteries and its 
guardian castle held out for sixteen days, during which time it is 
estimated that our army and navy, threw into the town about six 
thousand shot and shells, weighing upwards of 463,000 pounds 
On the side of the Mexicans the slaughter was exceedingly great. 
Nearly a thousand fell victims during the siege; and, among the 
slain, numerous unfortunate citizens, women and children, were 
found to have perished by the bombs or paixhan shot which de- 
stroyed the public and private edifices, and ruined many important 
portions of the city. 

When this new disaster was reported in the capital and among 
the highlands of Mexico, it spread consternation among the more 
secluded masses who now began to believe that the heart of the 
country was seriously menaced. They had doubtless trusted to the 
traditionary, proverbial strength of San Juan de Ulua, and believed 
that the danger of disease and storm on the coast would serve to 
protect Vera Cruz from the attack of unacclimated strangers, during 
a season of hurricanes. Indeed, it was fortunate that our troops were 
landed from the transports and. men-of-war as early as they were in 
March, for almost immediately afterwards, and during the siege, one 
of the most violent northers that ever ravaged these shores raged 
incessantly, destroying many of the vessels whose warlike freight 
of men and munitions had been so recently disembarked. 

But if the people were ignorant of the true condition and strength 
of Vera Cruz or its castle, such was not the case with the military 
men and national authorities. They had made but little effort to 
guard it against Scott, of whose designed attack they had been long 


372 CONDITION OF MEXICO — ALVARADO, ETC., CAPTURED. 


apprised, and they were probably prevented from doing so chiefly 
by the plans of Santa Anna, who supposed that Taylor would fall 
an easy prey to the large Mexican forces in the field at Buena Vista, 
especially as the American army had been weakened by the abstrac- 
tion of its regulars for the operations at Vera Cruz. Victorious at 
Buena Vista, he could have hastened, by forced marches, to attack 
the invaders on the eastern coast, and under the dismay of his an- 
ticipated victory in the north, he unquestionably imagined that they 
too would have fallen at once into his grasp. Besides these military 
miscalculations, Mexico was so embarrassed in its pecuniary affairs, 
and disorganized in its Central Civil Government, that the proper 
directing power in the capital,—warned as it was,—had neither 
men nor means at hand to dispose along the coast of the Gulf, or to 
station at points in its neighborhood whence they might quickly be 
thrown into positions which were menaced. 

It was at this juncture that Santa Anna’s voice was again heard 
in the council and the field. At the conclusion of the last chapter 
we left him hastening to the new scene of action; and when he an- 
nounced the capitulation of the vaunted castle and sea port of the 
Republic, he declared in his proclamation, that although “ chance 
might decree the fall of the capital of the Aztec empire under the 
power of the proud American host, yet the WVation shall not perish.” 
‘¢T swear,”’ continues he, ‘‘that if my wishes are seconded by a sin- 
cere and unanimous effort, Mexico shall triumph! A thousand 
times fortunate for the nation will the fall of Vera Cruz prove, if the 
disaster shall awaken in Mexican bosoms, the dignified enthusiasm, 
and generous ardor of true patriotism!’ ‘This was the tone of ap- 
peal and encouragement in which he rallied the credulous and vain 
masses, the disheartened country, the dispersed troops of the north, 
and reanimated the broken fragments of the army which still con- 
tinued in the field. 

Meanwhile, General Scott placed Vera Cruz under the command 
of General Worth; opened the port to the long abandoned com- 
merce which had languished during the blockade; established a 
moderate tariff, and together with the forces of the navy took pos- 
session of the ports of Alvarado and Tlacotlalpam on the south, and 
directed the future capture of Tuspan on the north of Vera Cruz. 
All his arrangements being completed, and these captures made and 
projected, he marched a large portion of his twelve thousand vic- 
torious troops towards the capital. , 

When the road to the interior leaves Vera Cruz, it runs for a mile 
or two along the low, sandy, sea-beaten shore, and then strikes off, 


SCOTT’S ADVANCE — DESCRIPTION OF CERRO GORDO. oes 


nearly at a right angle, in a gap among the sand-hills towards the 
west. For many miles it winds slowly and heavily through the 
deep and shifting soil, until, as the traveller approaches the river 
Antigua, the country begins to rise and fall by gentle elevations like 
the first heavy swells of the ocean. Passing this river at Puente 
Nacional over the noble and renowned bridge of that name, the as- 
pect of the territory becomes suddenly changed. The nearer eleva- 
tions are steeper and more frequent, the road firmer and more rocky, 
while, in the western distance, the tall slopes of the Sierras rise 
rapidly in bold and wooded masses. All the features of nature are 
still strictly tropical, and wherever a scant and thriftless cultivation 
has displaced the thick vines, the rich flowers, and the dense foliage 
of the forest, indolent natives may be seen idling about their cane- 
built huts, or lazily performing only the most necessary duties of 
life. Further on, at Plan del Rio the geological features of the 
coast assume another aspect. Here the road again crosses a small 
streamlet, and then suddenly strikes boldly into the side of the 
mountain which is to be ascended. About seven leagues from Ja- 
lapa the edge of one of the table lands of the Cordillera sweeps down 
from the west abruptly into this pass of the river Plan. On both 
sides of this precipitous elevation the mountains tower majestically. 
The road winds slowly and roughly along the scant sides which 
have been notched to receive it. When the summit of the pass is 
attained one side of the road is found to be overlooked by the Hill 
of the Telegraph, while on the other side the streamlet runs in an 
immensely deep and rugged ravine, several hundred feet below the 
level of the table land. Between the road and the river many ridges 
of the neighboring hills unite and plunge downwards into the im- 
passable abyss. At the foot of the Hill of the Telegraph, rises 
another eminence known as that of Atalaya, which is hemmed in by 
other wooded heights rising from below, and forming, in front of 
the position a boundary of rocks and forests beyond which the sight 
cannot penetrate. | 

When Don Manuel Robles left Vera Cruz, after its fall, he was 
desired by General Canalizo to examine the site of Cerro Gordo. 
After a full reconnoissance it was his opinion that it afforded a fa- 
vorable spot in which the invaders might be at least injured or 
checked, but that was not the proper point to dispute their passage 
to the capital by a decisive victory: The most favorable position 
for resistance he believed to be at Corral Falso. 

These views, however, did not accord with the opinions of the 
commander-in-chief, who when the ground was explored under his 

48 


374 MEXICAN DEFENCES AND MILITARY DISPOSAL THERE. 


own eye, resolved to fortify it for the reception of the Americans. 
The brigades of General Pinzon and Ranjel; the companies of Ja- 
lapa and Coatepec, commanded by Mata; and the veterans of the 
division of Angostura arrived also about this period, and their last 
sections reached the ground on the 12th. Meanwhile all was ac- 
tivity in the work of hasty fortification. Robles constructed a para- 
pet at the edge of the three hills, but failing to obtain all requi- 
site materials for such a work, his erection merely served to mark 
the line of the Mexican operations, and to form a breast-work 
whence the artillery and infantry might command the ground over 
which, as the defenders supposed, the Americans would be obliged 
to advance. Colonel Cano had already cut off the access by the 
road at the point where it turned on the right slope of the Tele- 
graph, by placing a heavy battery. He also formed a covered way 
leading to the positions on the right, while General Alcorta con- 
structed a circular work on the summit of the eminence and estab- 
lished within it a battery of four guns. In the centre of this the 
national flag was hoisted, and off to the left nothing was seen but 
thick, thorny dells and barrancas, which were regarded by Santa 
Anna as impassable. 

Such was the Mexican line of defences extending on the brink of 
these precipices for nearly a mile, and, throughout it, the com- 
mander-in-chief hastened to distribute his forces. The extreme 
right was placed under the command of General Pinzon, the next 
position under the naval captain, Buenaventura Aranjo, the next 
under Colonel Badillo, the next under General Jarero, the next 
post, at the road, under General La Vega, and finally the extreme 
left, at the Telegraph, under Generals Vazquez, Uraga and Colonel 
Palacios. The forces thus in position, according to the Mexican 
account, amounted to three thousand three hundred and seventy 
men with fifty-two pieces of ordnance of various calibre. The re- 
mainder of the army, with the exception of the cavalry, which re- 
mained at Corral Falso until the 15th, was encamped on the sides 
of the road at the rancheria of Cerro Gordo, situated in the rear of 
the position. In this neighborhood was placed the reserve, com- 
posed of the 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th light infantry, comprising 1,700 
men; and the Ist and 11th regiments of the line, with 780 men, 
together with their artillery. It is said that the army was badly 
provided with food and suffered greatly from the climate and the 
innumerable insects which infest the region. 

As Scott advanced against this position the dangers of his enter- 
prize became manifest, and he caused a series of bold reconnois- 


BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 375 


sances to be made by Lieutenant Beaurgard and Captain Lee, of 
the engineers. He found that the deep rocky ravine of the river 
protected the right flank of the Mexican position, while abrupt and 
seemingly impassable mountains and ridges covered the left. Be- 
tween these points, for nearly two miles, a succession of fortified 
summits bristled with every kind of available defence, while the top 
of Cerro Gordo commanded the road on a gentle slope, like a glacis, 
for nearly a mile. An attack in front, therefore, would have been 
fatal to the American army, arid Scott resolved, accordingly, to cut 
a road to the right of his position so as to turn the left flank of the 
Mexicans. To cover his flank movements, on the 17th of April, he 
ordered General Twiggs to advance against the fort on the steep 
ascent, in front, and slightly to the left of the Cerro. Colonel Har- 
ney, with the rifles and some detachments of infantry and artillery, 
carried this position under a heavy fire, and, having secured it, ele- 
vated a large gun to the summit of the eminence, and made a de- 
monstration against a strong fort in the rear. Early on the 18th, 
the columns moved to the general attack. General Pillow’s brigade 
assaulted the right of the Mexican entrenchments, and although 
compelled to retire, produced a powerful impression on that part of 
the enemy’s line. General Twigg’s division stormed the vital part 
of Cerro Gordo, pierced the centre, gained command of the fortifi- 
cations and cut them off from support; while Colonel Riley’s bri- 
gade of infantry rushed on against the main body of the foe, turned 
the guns of their own fort against them, and compelled the panic 
stricken crowd to fly in utter confusion. Shields’ brigade, mean- 
while, assaulted the left, and carrying the rear battery, aided mate- 
rially in completing the rout of the enemy. The whole American 
force, in action and reserve, was 8,500. Three thousand prisoners, 
four or five thousand stand of arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery, 
fell into Scott’s hands. In the two days of conflict our loss amounted 
to 33 officers and 398 men, of whom 63 were killed. The enemy’s 
loss was computed at 1,000 at least, while among the prisoners no 
less than two hundred and eighty officers and five generals were in- 
cluded. Santa Anna, and General Ampudia who was in the action, 
escaped with difficulty; and the commander-in-chief,. accompanied 
by a few friends and a small escort, finally reached Orizaba in 
safety, after encountering numerous dangers amid the mountains and 
lonely paths through which he was obliged to pass. 

This very decisive victory opened the path for the American army 
to the highlands of the upper plateau of Mexico, and, acccordingly, 
our forces immediately pushed on to Jalapa and Peroté, both of 


376 PEROTE AND PUEBLA YIELD — SANTA ANNA 


which places were abandoned by the Mexicans without firing a gun. 
General Worth took possession of Peroté on the 22d of April, and 
received from Colonel Velasquez, who had been left in charge of the 
fortress or castle of San Carlos de Peroté by his retreating country- 
men, 54 guns and mortars of iron and bronze, 11,065 cannon balls, 
14,300 bombs and hand grenades, and 500 muskets. On capturing 
the post he learned that the rout at Cerro Gordo had been complete. 
Three thousand cavalry passed the strong hold of Peroté in deplora- 
ble plight, while not more than two thousand disarmed and famish- 
ing infantry had returned towards their homes in the central regions 
of Mexico. From Peroté Worth advanced towards Puebla on the 
direct road to the capital. 

Thus was Mexico again reduced to extreme distress by the loss 
of two important battles, the destruction of her third army raised 
for this war, and the capture of her most valuable artillery and mu- 
nitions. But the national spirit of resistance was not subdued. If 
the government could no longer restrain the invaders by organized 
armies, it resolved to imitate the example of the mother country 
during Napoleon’s invasion, and to rouse the people to the forma- 
tion of guerilla bands under daring and reckless officers. Bold as 
was this effort of patriotic despair, and cruelly successful as it subse- 
quently proved against individuals or detached parties of the Ameri- 
cans, it could effect nothing material against the great body of the 
consolidated army. Meanwhile the master spirit of the nation — 
Santa Anna — had not been idle in the midst of his disheartening 
reverses. In little more than two weeks, he gathered nearly three 
thousand men from the fragments of his broken army, and marched 
to Puebla, where he received notice of Worth’s advance from Pe- 
roté. Sallying forth immediately with his force, he attacked the 
American general at Amozoque, but, finding himself unable to 
check his career, returned with a loss of nearly ninety killed and 
wounded. On the 22d of May, Puebla yielded submissively to 
General Worth, and Santa Anna retreated in the direction of the 
national capital, halting at San Martin Tesmalucan, and again at 
Ayotla, about twenty miles from Mexico. Here he learned that the 
city was in double fear of the immediate assault of the victorious 
Americans and of his supposed intention to defend it within its 
own walls, a project which the people believed would only result, in 
the present disastrous condition of affairs, in the slaughter of its 
citizens and ruin of their property. ‘The commander-in-chief halted 
therefore at Ayotla, and playing dexterously on the hopes and fears 
of the people in a long despatch addressed to the minister of war, 


RETURNS — CONSTITUTION OF 1824 RE-ADOPTED. BF Fi 


he at length received the Presidential and popular sanction of his 
return to Mexico. 

In truth, the nation at large had no one but Santa Anna, at that 
moment of utter despair, in whose prestige and talents — in spite 
of all his misfortunes and defeats —it could rely for even the hope 
of escape from destruction, if not of ultimate victory. 

Whilst the Mexican nation had been thus sorely vexed by in- 
testinal commotions and foreign invasion an Extraordinary Consti- 
tuent Congress — Congreso Extraordinario Constituyente — had 
been summoned and met in the capital, chiefly to revise the Con- 
stitution, or the “ Bases of Political Organization,” of 1843, which 
had been superseded by the temporary adoption of the Federal 
Constitution of 1824, according to the edict issued by Salas, 
under the direction of Santa Anna soon after that personage’s re- 
turn from exile. This Extraordinary Congress re-adopted the old 
Federal Constitution of 1824 without altering its terms, principles, 
or phraseology, and made such slight changes as were deemed 
needful by an Acta Constitutiva y de Reformas, containing thirty 
articles, which was sanctioned on the 18th, and proclaimed on the 
21st of May by Santa Anna, who had reassumed the Presidency. 
By this approval of the Federal System the Executive entirely 
abandoned the Central policy for which he had so long contended, 
but which, as we have seen in the 11th chapter, he no longer be- 
lieved, or feigned to believe, suitable for the nation. 

Notwithstanding this submission to popular will, and apparent 
desire to deprive the Central Government-of its most despotic pre- 
rogatives, the conduct of Santa Anna did not save him entirely from 
the machinations of his rivals or of intriguers. Much discontent 
was expressed publicly and privately, and the President, accord- 
ingly tendered his resignation to Congress, intimating a desire to 
hasten into private life! This stratagetic resignation was followed 
by the retiracy of General Rincon and General Bravo, who com- 
manded the troops in the city. Acts of such vital significance upon 
the part of the ablest men in the Republic, in an hour of exceeding 
danger, at once recalled Congress and the people to their senses ; 
and if they were designed, as they probably were, merely to throw 
the anarchists on their own resources and to show them their inef- 
ficiency at such an epoch, they seem to have produced the desired 
effect, for they placed Santa Anna and his partizans more firmly in 
power. Congress refused to accept his resignation. Unfortunate 
as he had been, it perhaps saw in him the only commander who was 
capable in the exigency of controlling the Mexican elements of re- 


378 MEXICAN POLITICS OF THE DAY—- WAR SPIRIT. 


sistance to the invaders, and he was thus enabled to form his plans, 
to collect men, means and munitions, and to commence the system 
of fortifications around the capital. ‘¢ War to the knife,”’ was still 
the rallying cry of the nation. The Congressional resolutions which 
had been passed on the 20th of April, immediately after the battle 
of Cerro Gordo, proclaimed “every individual a traitor, let him be 
private person or public functionary, who should enter into treaties 
with the United States !’’ Parties in the capital were, nevertheless, 
not unanimous upon this subject. There were wise men and 
patriots who foresaw the issue, and counselled the leaders to come 
to honorable terms before the capital was assaulted. Others craved 
the continuance of the war with the hope that its disasters would 
destroy the individuals who conducted it to an unfortunate issue ; 
and, among these, they saw that Santa Anna was finally pledged to 
abide that issue for weal or woe. Nor were politicians wanting in 
the Republic who honestly looked to the prolongation of the conflict 
as a blessing to Mexico, believing that it would result in the com- 
plete subjugation of the whole country by American arms and its 
final annexation to our Union. 

In June a coalition was formed at Lagos by deputies from Jalisco, 
San Luis Potosi, Zacatécas, Mexico and Querétaro, in which these 
States combined for mutual defence; but, while they opposed peace, 
they resolved to act independently of the General Government. 
Many other parts of the republic looked on the scene with apathy. 
There was no longer a revenue from foreign commerce. The pro- 
ducts of the mines were smuggled from the west coast in British 
vessels. Disorder and uncertainty prevailed every where in regard 
to the collection of the national income from internal resources. 
Individuals, and not States, corporations or municipalities, were 
now to be relied on for support; and, as the most important parts 
of the nation on the north and east were virtually in the enemy’s 
hands, the whole effort of the frail authorities was confined to the 
protection of the capital. In the midst of all this complication of 
confusion Santa Anna found that the election for President, which 
was held by the States on the 15th of May, had resulted unfavor- 
ably to his pretensions, and, by an adroit movement, he prevailed 
on Congress to postpone the counting of the votes from the 15th of 
June until January of the following year! All who opposed his 
schemes of defence or resistance, were disposed of by banishment, 
persecution or imprisonment, nor did he fail to establish so severe a 
censorship of the press, that, in July, it is believed, but one paper 
was allowed to be issued in the capital, and that one, of course, en- 


- = 
x ae 
3 

: 


GUERILLAS — PEACE NEGOTIATIONS — TRIST. 379 


tirely under his control. ‘Throwing himself, like a true military 
demagogue, publicly, if not at heart, at the head of popular feeling 
in regard to the war with the United States, he adopted every mea- 
sure and availed himself of every resource in his power to place the 
city in a state of defence, and to fan the flame of resistance. In 
the meanwhile the guerilla forces, organized on the eastern coast, 
chiefly under a recreant clergyman named Jarauta, harassed every 
American train and detachment on their way to the interior, and ren- 
dered the country insecure, until a fearful war of extermination was 
adopted by our garrisons on the line. 

The government of the United States had, during the whole of 
this unfortunate contest, availed itself of every supposed suitable 
occasion to sound Mexico in relation to peace. In July, 1846, and 
in January 1847, overtures were made to the national authorities 
and rejected ; nd again, early in the spring of 1847, as soon as the 
news of the defeat at Cerro Gordo reached Washington, Mr. Nich- 
olas P. Trist was despatched by the President upon a mission which 
it was hoped would result in the restoration of international amity. 
The commissioner reached Vera Cruz while the American army 
was advancing towards the interior, but it was not until the forces 
reached Puebla, and General Scott had established his head quar- 
ters in that capital, that he was enabled, through the intervention of 
the British Minister, to communicate with the Mexican government. 
The stringent terms of the decree to which we have already alluded, 
of course, prevented Santa Anna, powerful as he was, from enter- 
taining the proposals in the existing state of the public mind, and, 
accordingly, he referred the subject to Congress, a quorum of whose 
members was, with difficulty, organized. On the 13th of July, 
seventy-four assembled, and voted to strip themselves of the respon- 
sibility by a resolution that it was the Executive’s duty to receive 
ministers, and to make treaties of peace and alliance, and that their 
functions were confined to the approval or disapproval of those 
treaties or alliances when submitted in due form under the constitu- 
tion. But Santa Anna, still adhering to the letter of the mandatory 
decree passed after the battle of Cerro Gordo in April, alleged his 
legal incapacity to treat, and recommended the repeal of the order, 
inasmuch as the American commissioner’s letter was courteous, 
and the dignity of Mexico required the return of a suitable reply. 
Before the appeal could reach Congress, its members had dispersed, 
foreseeing probably, the delicacy, if not danger, of the dilemma in 
which they were about to be placed. Without a constitutional tri- 
bunal to relieve him from his position, the President finally referred 


380 SANTA ANNA’S SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. 


the matter to a council of general officers of the army. This body, 
however, was quite as timorous as Congress, and dismissed the pro- | 
ject by declaring that ‘‘it was inexpedient to enter into negotiations 
for peace, until another opportunity had been afforded Mexico to 
retrieve her fortunes in the field.” 

These were the negotiations that met the public eye, and are 
reported in the military and diplomatic despatches of the day; but 
there was a secret correspondence, also, which denotes either the 
duplicity or stratagy of Santa Anna, and must be faithfully recorded. 
It seems that the Mexican President, about the time that the public _ 
answer was proclaimed, sent private communications to the Ameri- 
can head quarters at Puebla, intimating that if a million of dollars 
were placed at his disposal, to be paid upon the conclusion of a 
treaty of peace, and ten thousand dollars were paid forthwith, he 
would appoint commissioners to negotiate! The proposal was re- 
ceived and discussed by General Scott, Mr. Trist, and the leading 
officers, and being agreed to, though not unanimously, the ten thou- 
sand dollars were disbursed from the secret service money which 
Scott had at his disposal, and communications were opened in cy- 
pher, the key of which had been sent from Mexico. Intimations 
soon reached Puebla, from Santa Anna, that it would be also neces- 
sary for the American army to advance and threaten the Capital;— 
and, finally, another message was received, urging Scott to pene- 
trate the valley and carry one of the outworks of the Mexican line 
of defences, in order to enable him to negotiate! ! 

The sincerity of these proposals from the Mexican President, is 
very questionable, and we are still in doubt whether he designed 
merely to procrastinate and feel the temper of the Americans, or 
whether he was in reality angling for the splendid bribe of a million 
which he might appropriate privately, in the event of playing suc- 
cessfully upon the feelings or fears of the masses. The attempt, 
however, proved abortive; and although both General Scott and 
Mr. Trist deemed it proper to entertain the proposal, the command- 
er-in-chief never for a moment delayed his military preparations for 
an advance with all the force he could gather. Thus were the last 
efforts of the American authorities in Mexico and Washington re- 
pulsed in the same demagogue spirit that hastened the rupture be- 
tween the nations in the spring of 1846, and nothing remained but 
to try again whether the sword was mightier than the pen. 


1See Major Ripley’s History of the War with Mexico, p. 148. et seq. 


18 TULHUETO 


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MAP OF THE 


VALLEY or MEXICO 
WITHAPLAN OF THE MEXICAN DEFENCS 
And lane of 
U.S.ARMY’S OPERATIONS 
" From the Survey of 
Liew! ML. Smith & Brev.Cap.Hardeastile. 
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1847. 


SCOTT AT PUEBLA—TAMPICO AND ORIZABA TAKEN—SCOTT’S 
ADVANCE — TOPOGRAPHY OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO — 
ROUTES TO THE CAPITAL —EL PENON — MEXICALZINGO ais 
“TEZCOCO — CHALCO — OUTER AND INNER LINES AROUND THE 


CITY — SCOTT’S ADVANCE BY CHALCO — THE AMERICAN ARMY 
AT SAN AGUSTIN. 


Tue American forces, as we have stated, had concentrated at 
Puebla on the main road to the city of Mexico, but their numbers 
had been thinned by desertion, disease and the return of many vol- 
unteers whose term of service was over or nearly completed. 
Meanwhile the Mexican army was increased by the arrival of General 
Valencia from San Luis with five thousand troops and_ thirty-six 
pieces of artillery, and General Alvarez with his Pinto Indians from 
the south and south-west, all of which, added to the regiments in 
the city and its Perdis vicinity, see the numbers of the 
Mexican combatants to at least twenty-five or thirty thousand. It 
was discovered that General Taylor would not advance towards the 
south, and consequently the presence of Valencia’s men was of more 


importance at the point where the vital blow would probably be 
struck. . 


Whilst the events we have related were occurring in the interior, 
Commodore Perry had swept down the coast and captured Tobasco, 
which, however, owing to its unhealthiness, was not long retained 
by the Americans. But every other important port in the Gulf, from 
the Rio. Grande to Yucatan, was in our possession, while an active 
blockade was maintained Lafsie those in the Pacific. Colonel Bank- 


_head subsequently, occupied Orizaba, and seized a large quantity 
of valuable public property. It had been the desire of the American 


authorities, from the earliest-period of the war, to draw a large por- 
tion of the means for its support from Mexico, but the commanding 


.. Generals finding the system not only annoying to themselves but 


382 -SCOTT’S ADVANCE. 


exasperating to the people and difficult of accomplishment, refrained 
from the exercise of a right which invaders ‘have generally used in 
other countries. Our officers, accordingly, paid for the supplies 
obtained from the natives. Nor did they confine this principle of 
action to the operations of the military authorities alone whilst act- 
ing for the army at large, but, wherever it was possible, restrained 
that spirit of private plunder and destruction which too commonly 
characterizes the common soldier when flushed with victory over a 
weak but opulent foe. When the ports of Mexico, however, had 
fallen into our possession and the blockade was raised, they were at 
once opened to the trade of all nations upon the payment of duties 
more moderate than those which had been collected by Mexico. 
The revenue, thus levied in the form of a military contribution from 
Mexican citizens upon articles they consumed, was devoted to the 
use of our army and navy. It was, in effect, the seizure of Mexi- 
can commercial duties and their application to our necessary pur- 
poses, and thus far, only, was the nation compelled to contribute 
towards the expense of the war it had provoked. 


Early in August, General Scott had been reinforced by the arrival 
of new regiments at Puebla, and on the 7th of that month, he re- 
solved to march upon the capital. Leaving a competent garrison in 
that city, under the command of Colonel Childs, and a large num- 
ber of sick and enfeebled men in the hospitals, he departed with 
about ten thousand eager soldiers towards the renowned Valley of 
Mexico. 

In the same month, three hundred and twenty-eight years before, 
Hernando Cortéz and his slender military train, departed from the 
eastern coasts of Mexico, on the splendid errand of Indian con- 
quest. After fighting two battles, with the Tlascalans who then 
dwelt in the neighborhood of Puebla, and with the Cholulans whose 
solitary pyramid,—a grand and solemn monument of the past, — 
still rises majestically from the beautiful plain, he slowly toiled 
across the steeps of the grand volcanic sierra which divides the val- 
leys and hems in the plain of Mexico. Patiently winding up its 
wooded sides and passing the forests of its summit, the same grand 
panoramic scene lay spread out in sunshine at the feet of the Ameri- 
can General that three centuries before had greeted the eager and 
longing eyes of the greatest Castilian soldier who ever trod the 
shores of America. 

In order to comprehend the military movements which ended the 
drama of the Mexican war, it will be necessary for us to describe 


TOPOGRAPHY OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 383 


the topography of the valley with some minuteness, although it is 
not designed to recount, in detail, all the events and personal hero- 
ism of the battles that ensued. This would require infinitely more 
room than we can afford, and we are, accordingly, spared the dis- 
cussion of many circumstances which concern the merits, the opin- 
ions, and the acts of various commanders. 


Looking downward towards the west from the shoulders of the 
lofty elevations which border the feet of the volcano of Popocate- 
petl, the spectator beholds a remarkable and perfect basin, enclosed 
on every side by mountains whose height varies from two hundred 
to ten thousand feet from its bottom. The form of this basin may 
be considered nearly circular, the diameter being about fifty miles. 
ds the eye descends to the levels below, it beholds every variety of 
scenery. ‘Ten extinct volcanoes rear their ancient cones and craters 
in the southern part of the valley, multitudes of lesser hills and 
elevations break the evenness of the plain, while, interspersed 
among its eight hundred and thirty square miles of arable land and 
along the shores of its six lakes of Chalco, Xochimilco, Tezcoco, 
San Cristoval, Xaltocan and Zumpango, stretching across the valley 
from north to south, are seen the white walls of ten populous cities 
and towns. In front of the observer, about forty miles to the west, 
is the capital of the Republic, while the main road thither descends 
rapidly from the last mountain slopes, at the Venta de Cordova, 
until it is lost in the plain on the margin of Lake Chalco near the 
Hacienda of Buena Vista. From thence to the town of Ayotla it 
sweeps along the plain between a moderate elevation on the north 
and the lake of Chalco on the south. 

On the 11th of August, General Scott, after crossing the moun- 
tains, concentrated his forces in the valley. General Twiggs en- 
camped with his division in advance, on the direct road, at Ayotla, 
near the northern shore of Lake Chalco; General Quitman was 
stationed with his troops a short distance in the rear; General 
Worth occupied the town of Chalco on the western shore of its 
lake, while General Pillow brought up the rear by an encampment 
near Worth. 

This position of the army commanded four routes to the capital 
whose capture was the coveted prize. The first of these, as well 
as the shortest and most direct, was the main post road which 
reaches the city by the gate or garita of San Lazaro on the east. 
After passing Ayotla this road winds round the foot of an extinct 
volcanic hill for five miles when it approaches the sedgy shores and 


384 ROUTES TO THE CAPITAL——EL PENON, 


marshes of Lake Tezcoco on the north, thence it passes over a 
causeway built across an arm of Tezcoco for two miles, and, by an- 
other causeway of seven miles finally strikes the city. The road is 
good, level, perfectly open and comfortable for ordinary travelling, 
but the narrow land between the lakes of Chalco and Tezcoco, com- 
pressed still more by broken hills and rocks, admits the most perfect 
military defence. At the end of the first causeway over the arm of 
Tezcoco which we have just described, is the abrupt oblong vol- 
canic hill styled El Pefion, four hundred and fifty feet above the 
level of the lake, its top accessible in the direction of Ayotla at only 
one point, and surrounded by water except on the west towards 
Mexico. Itis a natural fortress; yet Santa Anna had not neglected 
to add to its original strength, and to seize it as the eastern key of 
his defences. Three lines of works were thrown up, at the base, 
at the brow, and on the summit of the eminence. The works at the 
base, completely encircling El Pefion, consisted of a ditch fifteen 
feet wide, four and a half feet deep, and a parapet fifteen feet thick 
whose slope was raised eight and a half feet above the bottom of the 
ditch. Ample breastworks formed the other two lines of the brist- 
ling tiara. In addition to this, the causeway across the arm of 
Tezcoco, immediately in front, had been cut and was defended by a 
battery of two guns, while the fire from all the works, mounting 
about sixty pieces, swept the whole length of the causeway. 

The second road to the capital was by Mexicalzingo. After 
leaving Ayotla the highway continues along the main post road for 
six or seven miles and then deflects southwardly towards the village 
of Santa Maria, whence it pursues its way westwardly towards Is- 
tapalapan, but, just before reaching Mexicalzingo, it crosses a marsh 
formed by the waters of Lake Xochimilco, on a causeway nearly a 
mile Jong. ‘This approach, dangerous as it was by its natural im- 
pediments, was also protected by extensive field works which made 
it almost as perilous for assault as the Pefion. 

The third route lay through Tezcoco. Leaving Chalco and the 
Hacienda of Buena Vista, it strikes off from the main route directly 
north, and passing through the town of Tezcoco, it sweeps west- 
wardly around the shores of the lake of that name until it crosses 
the stone dyke of San Cristoval, near the lake and town of that 
name; thence, by a road leading almost directly south for fifteen 
miles, through the sacred town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, it enters the 
capital. Itis an agreeable route through a beautiful country, yet 
extremely circuitous though free from all natural or artificial obsta- 
cles, until it reaches Santiago Zacualco within two miles of Guada- 


MEXICALZINGO, TEZCOCO, CHALCO. 385 


lupe. But at the period of Scott’s invasion of the valley, General 
Valencia, with the troops that were afterwards convened at Contre- 
ras, was stationed at T’ezcoco, either for the purpose of observation, 
or to induce an attack in that quarter, and thus to draw our forces 
into a snare on the northern route, or to fall on the rear of the Amer- 
ican commander if he attacked El Pefion, or advanced by the way 
of Mexicalzingo. At Santiago Zacualco, west of the lake and 
on the route, formidable works were thrown up to defend the entire 
space between the western shore of lake Tezcoco and the moun- 
tains; while on the road to Querétaro, at the mountain pass north 
of Tenepantla, other defences were erected, so as to screen the 
country on all sides of the group of hills which lies west of the 
lakes of Tezcoco and San Cristoval and north of the town of Gua- 
dalupe Hidalgo. 

The fourth and last advance to the city was that which turned to 
the south from the Hacienda of Buena Vista, and passing by the 
town of Chalco, led along the narrow land intervening between 
the shores of lake Chalco and the first steeps of the mountains 
forming the southern rim of the valley, until it fell at right angles, 
at Tlalpam or San Agustin de las Cuevas, into the main road 
from the city of Mexico towards the southern States of the 
Republic. 

All these routes were boldly reconnoitred by the brave engineers 
accompanying the American army, and, where they could not ex- 
tend their personal observations, the officers obtained from the peo- 
ple of the country, information upon which subsequent events 
proved that they were justified in relymg. From the knowledge 
thus gained as to the route south of the lake of Chalco, they were 
induced to believe, although it was rough, untravelled, difficult, and 
narrowly hemmed in between the lake and the mountains, yet that 
the long and narrow defile, which was open to resistance at many 
points, was not sufficiently obstructed or fortified to prevent our 
passage. All the routes on the lower lands, it should also be re- 
membered, were liable to increased difficulties from the deluging 
rains prevailing at this season on the highlands of Mexico, and 
which sometimes convert the highways and their borders, for many 
leagues, into almost impassable lagunes. 

Santa Anna and his engineers had probably supposed that this 
southern route would not be adopted, but a reasonable explanation 
of his conduct is given by one of the most competent commenta- 
tors upon the valley of Mexico and the march of the American ar- 


386 OUTER AND INNER LINES 


my.! ‘¢ When an enemy is in front of El Pefion, the communica- 
tion between it and troops on the other routes is only by way of the 
city of Mexico itself; in other words, the American troops being at 
Ayotla, General Santa Anna’s forces at El Pefion were one day’s 
march distant from those at Mexicalzingo, three from those under 
General Valencia, and would have been about four days’ march from 
troops thrown forward on the Chalco route. Fords on these differ- 
ent routes were by no means within supporting distances of each 
other. Holding the position that General Scott then did, it would have 
required, of an equal enemy, four times his own force, to have op- 
posed successfully his further advance. The Mexican forces were | 
not numerically equal to this, and, accordingly, they were concen- 
trated at the threatened point. It is evident that as long as the 
American troops were in front of El Pefion, the enemy necessarily 
held to their position. In moving off, the former could gain one 
day the start. This brought the only difficult parts of the Chalco 
route actually nearer General Scott than the Mexican chief. If to 
this we add the delay necessary in moving heavy artillery and break- 
ing up from a fortified position, it would seem that, instead of over- 
sight, it was rather impossible for General Santa Anna to meet our 
forces sooner than he did.” 

The description of the various routes to the capital has necessa- 
rily acquainted the reader with the important Mexican defences on 
the north, the east, and the north-east of the capital, both by milita- 
ry works hastily thrown up after Santa Anna’s retreat from Cerro 
Gordo, and by the encampment of large bodies of soldiery. We 
thus, already know a part of the external line of defences at El 
Pefion, Mexicalzingo, Tezcoco, Santiago Zacualco, and the Pass 
north of Tenepantla. But in addition to these, there are others 
that must be noticed on the south and west of the capital, which it 
should always be recollected is situated in the lap of the valley, but 
near the western edge of the gigantic rim of mountains. 

Along the Chalco route there were no more fortifications, but 
west of lakes Chalco and Xochimilco, a line of entrenchments had 
been commenced, connecting the fortified hacienda, or massive stone 
plantation house of San Antonio, about six miles south of the city, 
with the town of Mexicalzingo. West of this hacienda, the Ped- 
regal, a vast, broken field of lava, spread out along the edge of the 


1See the admirable Map and Memoir of Lieutenant M. L. Smith, and Brevet Cap- 
tain E. L. F. Hardcastle, published in the Senate Document, No. 11 of the first ses- 
sion of the 3lst Congress: 1849 750. 


AROUND THE CITY. 387 


main road, and skirting it to San Agustin, extended high upon 
the mountain slopes still further west near San Angel and Contre- 
ras, whose neighboring fields were cut into deep ravines and bar- 
rancas by the wash from the declivities. The Pedregal was a most 
formidable obstacle in the march or manceuvres of an army. But 
few levels of arable land were found among its rocky wastes. It 
admitted the passage of troops at but few points, and was entirely 
impracticable for cavalry or artillery, except by a single mule-path. ! 
North of San Angel and the edge of the Pedregal, at the distance 
of about four miles, rose the solitary hill and castle of Chapultepec, 
which had been amply prepared for defence; and still further north 
on the same line, frowned the stern ridges of the sierra, cut by bar- 
rancas and profound dells, until the ring of the outer series of mili- 
tary works was thus finally united at the pass beyond Tenepantla. 
But inside of this formidable barrier of outworks, nearer the city, 
another line of fortifications had been prepared to dispute the Ameri- 
can march. The first, and perhaps the most important of these, 
was at Churubusco, a scattered village lying midway between San 
Agustin and the city of Mexico, directly on the road, at a spot 
where the stream or rivulet of Churubusco runs eastwardly from a 
point on the road from San Angel to the capital, towards the lake 
of Xochimilco. The sides of the water course were planted with 
the prickly maguey, and one of the most western buildings in the 
village was a strong massive stone convent, whose walls had been 
cut for musketry, and whose parapets, azotéas or flat roofs, and 
windows, all afforded suitable positions for soldiery. Large quan- 
tities of ammunition were stored within the edifice. The enclosure 
of the church and convent was defended by about two thousand 
men, and mounted seven guns, while, towards the east was a beau- 
tiful, solid and scientifically constructed téte de pont which covered 
the bridge over the stream by which the road led to the capital. 
In this work three heavy guns were mounted, while the neighbor- 
hood is said to have swarmed with troops. 

We have already mentioned the garita or gate of San Lazaro, 
which was the entrance to the city by the main road from the east, 
passing the hill and fortification of El Pefion. This garita was 
strengthened by strong works on the road, with platforms and em- 
brasures for heavy cannon, which would have swept the path, while 
the marshes on the south were protected by redoubts and lunettes 
extending to the garita or entrance of La Candelaria on the canal 


1 Ripley’s War with Mexico, vol. 2, 181. 


3&8 LINES AKOUND THE CITY. 


from Xochimilco. North of San Lazaro strong works hemmed in 
the city to the garita of Peralvillo, and connected with defences and 
fortified houses reaching to the garita of Santiago. Other advan- 
ced works were begun in that quarter, while the ground in front of 
the main line was cut into troux de loups. 

On the west of the city are the garitas of San Cosmé and Belen. 
‘¢Works had been commenced to connect that of San Cosmé, the 
most northerly of the two, with that of Santiago, and the nature of 
the country and of the buildings, formed obstructions to any ad- 
vance between San Cosmé and Belen. Belen was defended princi- 
pally by the citadel of Mexico, a square bastioned work with wet 
ditches, immediately inside the garita. Barricades had also been 
commenced; but the great obstacle to an entrance by either garita, 
was presented in the rock and castle of Chapultepec, two miles 
south-west of the city. From this hill two aqueducts extend to the 
capital, the one, north-east, in a direct line to Belen, and the other, 
north, to the suburb of San Cosmé, where, turning at right angles, 
it continued onward and entered at the garita. The roads from the 
west ran along the sides of the aqueducts. Two roads enter the 
city from the south, between the garita of San Antonio and Belen, 
one at Belen and the other at the garita of El nifio Perdido, neither 
of these roads have branches to the Acapulco road south of the 
Pedregal and the Hacienda of San Antonio, and, therefore, had 
been left comparatively unfortified.”’ ! 

These defences, overlooked by the lofty sierras and the barrancas 
which broke their feet, hemmed in the capital, and the Mexicans 
readily imagined that they could not be turned by an army march- 
ing from the east, so as to reach the city on the west, except by a 
tedious circuit which would allow them time to complete their pro- 
tective works in that quarter. The east had claimed their chief and 
most natural attention, and thus the south and the west became un- 
questionably their weakest points. 


Such were the Mexican lines, natural and artificial, around the 
capital in the valley in the middle of August, 1847, and such was 
the position of the American troops in front of them. The Mexi- 
cans numbered then, with all their levies, probably more than thirty 
thousand fighting men, while the Americans did not count more 
than ten thousand—under arms at all points. ‘The invaders had 
prepared as well as circumstances admitted, and their materiel for 


1 Ripley, 2d vol., 182. 


SCOTT’S ADVANCE BY CHALCO. 389 


assault or siege had been gathered carefully, and transported slowly 
into the interior, through the country intervening between Vera 
Cruz and Puebla, every train being usually attacked by guerillas, 
and fighting its way boldly through the most dangerous passes. 
The equipments of the Mexicans, except the weapons saved from 
the wreck of former battles, had been chiefly prepared at the can- 
non foundries and powder factories of the country, and it is quite 
amazing to notice how completely a great exigency brought forth 
the latent energies of the people, teaching them what they might 
ordinarily effect, if guided by a spirit of industry and progress. 
Under the most disheartening depression, but fired by the stimulus of 
despair, by an overpowering sense of patriotic duty, and by religious 
enthusiasm which had been excited by the crusading address of the 
clergy of San Luis Potosi, issued in the month of April, they mani- 
fested in their last moments, a degree of zeal, calmness, and fore- 
sight that will forever redound to their credit on the page of history. 


The Mexican preparations for defence were not, of course, as 
completely known to the Americans as we now describe them. 
Through spies, scouts and reconnoisances of our engineers, some of 
the exterior, and even of the interior lines were ascertained with 
tolerable accuracy; but sufficient was known to satisfy General 
Scott that. of all the approaching routes to the capital, that which 
led along the southern shores of lake Chalco was the only one he 
ought to adopt. } 

Accordingly, on the 15th of August, the movement was com- 
menced in the reverse order from that in which the army had entered 
the valley from Puebla. Worth’s division passing Pillow’s, led the 
advance, Pillow and Quitman followed, while Twiggs’ brought up 
the rear. Scott took his position with Pillow, so as to communi- 
cate easily with all parts of the army. Water transportation, to 
some extent, had been obtained by General Worth at Chalco, by 
the siezure of market boats which plied between that place and the 
capital. When Twiggs moved he was assailed by Alvarez and his 
Pintos, but soon drove them off, while the advance columns, after 
passing San Gregorio, were constantly assailed by the enemy’s light 
troops in their front, and harassed and impeded by ditches that had 
been hastily cut across the road, or by rocks rolled down from the 


1 General Scott had set his heart, even at Puebla, on the Chalco route, but he re- 
solved not to be obstinate, if, on a closer examination of the ground, a better route 
was presented. The last information of his spies and officers, in the valley, satisfied 
him as to the propriety of advancing by Chalco. 


390 THE AMERICAN ARMY AT SAN AGUSTIN. 


mountains. These obstacles necessarily consumed time, but the 
simple-minded Indians of the neighborhood, who had just been com- 
pelled by the Mexicans to throw the impediments in the Americans’ 
way, were perhaps more easily induced to aid in clearing the path 
for the invaders, than their ancestors had been in the days of Cortéz. 
On the afternoon of the 17th, Worth, with the advance, reached 
San Agustin, at the foot of the mountains, and at the intersection 
of the southern road from Mexico to Cuernavaca and Acapulco— 
a point whose topography we have already described ; — and, on the 
18th, the rear division entered the town. 

As soon as Santa Anna discovered Scott’s advance by the Chalco ~ 
route, and that the attack on Mexico would be made from the south. 
instead of the east, he at once perceived that it was useless to attack 
the American rear, whilst passing the defiles between the lake and © 
the mountains even if he could possibly come up with it, and con- 
sequently, that it was best for him to quit his head quarters at El 
Pefion, while he also recalled General Valencia with the most of the 
troops at Tezcoco and at Mexicalzingo, which were no longer men- 
aced by the foe. Santa Anna himself, established his quarters 
at the fortified hacienda of San Antonio, and ordered Valencia to 
march his whole division, cavalry, infantry and artillery, to the town 
of San Angel and Coyoacan, so as to cover the whole west and cen- 
tre of the valley in front of Mexico. 


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CH A PTR x by. 
1847. 


DIFFICULTIES OF THE ADVANCE—THE PEDREGAL=—SAN ANTONIO— 
HACIENDA=——RELATIVE POSITION OF AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AR- 
MIES —PATH OVER THE PEDREGAL TO CONTRERAS — VALENCIA DIS- 
CONCERTS SANTA ANNA’S PLAN OF BATTLE — AMERICAN ADVANCE 
AND VICTORY AT CONTRERAS—SAN ANTONIO TURNED BY WORTH — 
BATTLE OF CHURUBUSCO—BATTLE AT THE CONVENT AND TETE DE 
PONT — THEIR CAPTURE— FLIGHT OF THE MEXICANS. 


In order to understand the ensuing military movements, it will be 
proper for the reader to study the map of the valley, and acquaint 
himself fully with the relative posture of both parties. The plans 
of both generals in chief were well made; but the blunders and 
obstinacy of the Mexican second in command disconcerted Santa 
Anna’s desired combination, and ultimately opened the ground to 
the American advance with more ease than was anticipated. 

We will sketch rapidly the military value of the arena upon which 
the combatants stood on the 18th of August, 1847. 

Let us imagine ourselves beside General Scott, standing on one 
of the elevations above the town of San Agustin de las Cuevas, 
at the base of the southern mountain barren of the valley, and look- 
ing northward towards the capital. Directly in front, leading to 
the city, is the main road, the left or western side of which, even 
from the gate of San Agustin to the Hacienda of San Antonio, and 
thence westwardly to San Angel, forms, together with the bases of 
the southern and western mountains about St. Geronimo and Con- 
treras, a vast basin, ten or twelve square miles in extent, covered 
with the Pedregal or the field of broken lava which we have alrea- 
dy mentioned. This mass of jagged volcanic matter, we must 
remember, was at that time barely passable with difficulty for infan- 
try, and altogether impassable for cavalry or artillery, save by a 
single mule path. North, beyond the fortified hacienda and head- 
quarters of Santa Anna at San Antonio, the country opened. A line 
of field works, the lake of Xochimilco,.a few cultivated farms, and 
vast flooded meadows, were on its right to the east, but from the 
hacicnda, a road branches off to the west, leading around the north- 
ern edge of the Pedregal or lava field through Coyoacan and San 
Angel, whence it deflects southwardly to Contreras. The main 
road, however, continues onward, northwardly, from the hacienda 
of San Antonio, until it crosses the Churubusco river at the strong 


392 RELATIVE POSITION OF AMERICAN AND MEXICAN ARMIES. 


fortification we have described. Beyond Churubusco the highway 
leads straight to the gate of San Antonio Abad, whence a work had 
been thrown north-westwardly towards the citadel. The city of 
Mexico, built on the bed of an ancient lake, was on a perfect level, 
nor were there any commanding or protecting elevations of import- - 
ance around it within two or three miles, and the first of these, be- 
yond this limit, were chiefly on the north and west. 

Thus, General Santa Anna, in front, on the main road to the city, 
at the massive fortified hacienda of San Antonio, blocked up the 
highway in that direction, protected on his right by the barrier of 
the Pedregal; and by the lake of Xochimilco, the field works, and 
the flooded country on his left. General Valencia had been placed 
by him with his troops at San Angel, on the western edge of the 
valley, and at the village of Coyoacan, a little further east in the 
lap of the valley, on roads communicating easily with his position 
at San Antonio, while they commanded the approaches to the city 
by the circuitous path of the Pedregal around the edge of the val- 
ley from San Agustin de las Cuevas, through Contreras or Padierna. 
Valencia and Santa Anna were consequently within supporting dis- 
tance of each other; and in their rear, in front of the city, were the 
fortifications of Churubusco. General Scott, with the whole Ameri- 
can army was, therefore, apparently hemmed in between the lakes 
and the Pedregal on his flanks ; the Mexican fortifications and army 
in front; and the steep mountains towards Cuernavaca in his rear. 
He was obliged, accordingly, either to retreat by the defiles through 
which he had advanced from Chalco, — to climb the steeps behind 
him and pass them to the tzerra caliente, — to force the position in 
front at the hacienda of San Antonio,—or to burst the barrier of 
the Pedregal on his left, and, sweeping round the rim of the valley, 
to advance towards the capital through the village of San Angel. 
Such were some of the dangers and difficulties that menaced Scott 
on his arrival at San Agustin. He was in the heart of the enemy’s 
country, in front of a capital aroused by pride, patriotism and de- 
spair, and possessing all the advantages of an accurate knowledge 
of the ground on which it stood, or by which it was surrounded. 
Scott, on the other hand, like the mariner in storm on a lee shore, 
was obliged to feel his way along the dangerous coast with the lead, 
and could not advance with that perfect confidence which is ever 
the surest harbinger of success. 

The reconnoissances of the American engineers which had been 
pushed boldly, in front, on the main road, to the north, by the haci- 
enda of San Antonio, soon disclosed the difficulty in that direction, 


PATH OVER THE PEDREGAL TO CONTRERAS. 393 


But among the mass of information which the American General 
received at Puebla, his engineers learned that there was a pathway 
through this Pedregal whose route had been indicated by the spies 
with sufficient distinctness and certainty to justify a hope that he 
might be able to render it practicable for his whole army, and, thus, 
enable him to turn the right flank of the Mexicans’ strongest posi- 
tions. There is no doubt, as subsequent events demonstrated, that 
the ground in the neighborhood of Contreras, where the road de- 
scends from the mountains and barrancas towards San Angel was 
of great importance to the Mexicans in the defence of the various 
modes of access to the city, and it is unquestionable that a strong 
post should have been placed in that quarter to cripple the Ameri- 
can advance. It is stated by Mexican writers, that General Men- 
doza, with two members of his topographical corps had reconnoi- 
tred this route and pass, and pronounced it ‘‘ absolutely indefensible.” 
It is probable, therefore, that no general action, involving the for- 
tunes of a division, or of a large mass of the Mexican army, should 
have been risked among the ravines between the mountains and the 
Pedregal near Contreras ; yet we do not believe that it should have 
been left by Santa Anna without a force capable of making a staunch 
resistance. 

We are now acquainted with the ground, and with the positions 
of the two armies. Scott’s plan was to force a passage by either 
or both of the two adits to the levels of the valley in front of. the 
city, while Santa Anna’s, according to his manifesto dated subse- 
quently on the 23d of August, was to have made a concerted retro- 
gerade movement with his troops, and to have staked the fortunes 
of the capital on a great battle, in which all his fresh, enthusiastic, 
and unharmed troops would have been brought into a general action 
against the comparatively small American army, upon an open 
ground where he would have had full opportunity to use and manceu- 
vre infantry, cavalry and artillery. 

But this plan was disconcerted at first, and probably destroyed, 
both in its materiel and morale, by the gross disobedience of Gen- 
eral Valencia, who forgot as a soldier, that there can never be two 
commanders in the field. Valencia, apparently resolving to seize 
the first opportunity to attack the Americans, in spite of the reported 
untenable character of the ground about Padierna or Contreras, left 
his quarters at Coyoacan and San Angel, and advanced, without 
consulting his commander, to Contreras, upon whose heights he 
threw up an entrenched camp! As soon as Santa Anna learned this 
fact, he ordered the vain and reckless officer to retire, but finding 


394 VALENCIA DISCONCERTS SANTA ANNA’S PLAN OF BATTLE. 


him obstinately resolute in his insubordination, the commander-in- 
chief suffered him, in direct opposition to his own opinion, to remain 
and to charge himself with the whole responsibility of the conse- 
quences. Thus, if Scott advanced upon the main road, he would 
meet only Santa Anna in front, and the efficiency of Valencia’s 
force, on his left flank, would be comparatively destroyed. If he 
conquered Valencia, however, at Contreras, after passing the Pedre- 
gal, he would rout a whole division of the veterans of the north— 
the remnants of San Luis and Angostura,—while the remainder of 
the army, composed of recent levies and raw troops, disciplined for 
the occasion, would, in all likelihood, fall an easy prey to the eager 
Americans. ' 

The reconnoissances of the American army were now completed 
both towards San Antonio over the main northern road, and towards 
Padierna or Contreras over the southern and south-western edge of 
the Pedregal. ‘That brave and accomplished engineer, Captain— 
now Colonel Robert E. Lee — had done the work on the American 
left across the fields of broken lava, and being convinced that a 
road could be opened, if needed, for the whole army and its trains, 
Scott resolved forthwith to advance. 

- On the 19th of August, General Pillow’s division was com- 
manded to open the way, and advancing carefully, bravely and 
laboriously over the worst portion of the pass, — cutting its road as 
it moved onward,— it arrived about three o’clock in the afternoon 
at a point amid the ravines and barrancas near Padierna or Con- 
treras where the new road could only be continued under the direct 
fire of twenty-two pieces of Mexican artillery, most of which were 
of large calibre. These guns were in a strong entrenched camp, 
surrounded by every advantage of ground and by large bodies of 
infantry and cavalry, reinforced from the city, over an excellent road 
beyond the volcanic field. Pillow’s and Twiggs’s force, with all 
its officers on foot, picking a way along the Mexican front and ex- 
tending towards the road from the city and the enemy’s left, ad- 
vanced to dislodge the foe. Captain Magruder’s field battery of 
twelve and six-pounders, and Lieut. Callender’s battery of moun- 
tain howitzers and rockets, were also pushed forward with great 
difficulty within range of the Mexican fortifications, and, thus, a sta- 
tionary battle raged until night fell drearily on the combatants amid 
a cold rain which descended in torrents. Wet, chilled, hungry and 
sleepless, both armies passed a weary time of watching until early 
the next morning, when a movement was made by the Americans 
which resulted in a total rout of Valencia’s forces. Fighting at a 


AMERICAN ADVANCE AND VICTORY AT CONTRERAS. 395 


long distance against an entrenched camp was worse than useless 
on such a ground, and although General Smith’s and Colonel Riley’s 
brigades, supported by Generals Pierce’s and Cadwallader’s, had 
been under a heavy fire of artillery and musketry for more than three 
hours along the almost impassable ravine in front and to the left of 
the Mexican camp, yet so little had been effected in destroying the 
position that the main reliance for success was correctly judged to be 
in an assault at close quarters. The plan had been arranged in the 
night by Brigadier General Persifer F. Smith, and was sanctioned 
by General Scott, to whom it was communicated through the inde- 
fatigable diligence of Captain Lee, of the Engineers. 

At 3 o’clock A. M. of the 20th August, the movement com- 
menced on the rear of the enemy’s camp, led by Colonel Riley and 
followed successively by Cadwallader’s and Smith’s brigades, the 
whole force being commanded by General Smith. 

The march was rendered tedious by rain, mud and darkness ; 
but, about sun rise, Riley reached an elevation behind the Mexicans 
whence he threw his men-upon the works, and, storming the en- 
trenchments, planted his flag upon them in seventeen minutes. 
Meanwhile Cadwallader brought on the general assault by crossing 
the deep ravine in front and pouring into the work and upon the fugi- 
tives, frequent volleys of destructive musketry. Smith’s own brigade 
under the temporary command of Major Dimick, discovered, oppo- 
site and outside the work, a long line of Mexican cavalry drawn up 
in support, and by a charge against the flank, routed the horse com- 
pletely, while General Shields held masses of cavalry, supported by 
artillery, in check below him, and captured multitudes who fled 
from above. 

It was a rapid and brilliant feat of arms. Scott,—the skilful 
and experienced General of the field, —doubts in his despatch 
whether a more brilliant or decisive victory is to be found on record, 
when the disparity of numbers, the nature of the ground, the artifi- 
cial defences, and the fact that the Americans accomplished their 
end without artillery or cavalry, are duly and honestly considered. 
All our forces did not number more than 4,500 rank and file, while 
the Mexicans maintained, at least, six thousand on the field, and 
double that number in reserve under Santa Anna, who had advanced — 
to support but probably seeing that it was not a spot for his theory of 
a general action, and that an American force intervened, declined 
aiding his disobedient officer. The Mexicans lost about 700 killed, 
813 prisoners, including 4 Generals among 88 officers. 'Twenty- 
two pieces of brass ordnance, thousands of small arms and accoutre- 


396 SAN ANTONIO TURNED BY WORTH. 


ments, many colors and standards, large stores of ammunition, 700 
pack mules, and numbers of horses fell into the hands of the victors. 

The rage of Santa Anna against Valencia knew no bounds. He 
ordered him to be shot wherever found ; but the defeated chief fled 
precipitately towards the west beyond the mountains, and fora long 
time lay in concealment until the storm of private and public indig- 
nation had passed. The effect of this battle, resulting in the loss 
of the veterans of the north, was disastrous not only in the city, but 
to the morale of the remaining troops of the main division under 
Santa Anna. It certainly demonstrated the importance of Padierna 
or Contreras as a military point of defence; but it unquestionably 
proved that the works designed to maintain it should have been dif- 
ferently planned and placed at a much earlier day, after mature de- 
liberation by skilful engineers. The hasty decision and work of 
Valencia, made without preconcert or sanction of the General-in- 
chief, and in total violation of his order of battle, followed by the 
complete destruction of the entire division of the northern army, 
could only result in final disaster. 

Whilst the battle of Contreras was raging early in the day, 
brigades from Worth’s and Quitman’s divisions had been advanced 
to support the combatants; but before they arrived on the field the 
post was captured, and they were, accordingly, ordered to return to 
their late positions. Worth, advanced from San Agustin, in front 
of San Antonio, was now in better position, for a road to the rear 
of the hacienda had been opened by forcing the pass of Contreras. 
Moving from Contreras or Padierna through San Angel and Coyoa- 
can, Pillow’s and T'wiggs’s divisions would speedily be able to at- 
tack it from the north, while Worth, advancing from the south, 
might unquestionably force the position. Accordingly while Pillow 
and Twiggs were advanced, General Scott reached Coyoacan, about 
two miles, by a cross road, in the rear of the hacienda of San An- 
tonio. From Coyoacan he despatched Pillow to attack the rear of 
San Antonio, while a reconnoissance was made of Churubusco, on 
the main road, and an attack of the place ordered to be effected by 
Twiggs with one of his brigades and Captain Taylor’s field battery. 

General Pierce was next despatched, under the guidance of Cap- 
tain Lee, by a road to the left, to attack the enemy’s right and rear 
in order to favor the movement on the Convent of Churubusco and 
cut off retreat to the capital. And, finally, Shields, with the New 
York and South Carolina volunteers, was ordered to follow Pierce 
and to command the left wing. ‘The battle now raged from the 
right to the left of our whole line. All the movements had been made 


BATTLE OF CHURUBUSCO. 397 


with the greatest rapidity and enthusiasm. Not a moment was lost 
in pressing the victory after the fall of Contreras. Shouting Ameri- 
cans and rallying Mexicans were spread over every field. Every 
one was employed; and, in truth, there was ample work to do, for 
even the commander-in-chief of our forces was left without a reserve 
or an escort, and had to advance for safety close in Twiggs’s rear. 

Meanwhile, about an hour earlier, Worth, by a skilful and daring 
movement upon the enemy’s front and right at the hacienda of San 
Antonio, had turned and forced that formidable point whose garrison 
no doubt was panic struck by the victory of Contreras. The enter- 
prise was nobly achieved. Colonel Clarke’s brigade, conducted by 
the engineers Mason and Hardcastle, found a practicable path 
through the Pedregal west of the road, and, by a wide sweep, came 
out upon the main causeway to the capital. At this point the three 
thousand men of the Mexican garrison at San Antonio, were met in 
retreat, and cut by Clarke in their very centre ;——one portion being 
driven off towards Dolores on the right, and the other upon Churu- 
busco in the direct line of the active operations of the Americans. 
Whilst this brave feat of out-flanking was performed, Colonel Gar- 
‘land, Major Galt, Colonel Belton, and Lieutenant Colonel Duncan 
advanced to the front attack of San Antonio, and rushing rapidly 
on the flying enemy, took one General prisoner, and seized a large 
quantity of public property, ammunition and the five deserted guns. 

Thus fell the two main keys of the valley, and thus did all the 
divisions of the American army at length reach the open and com- 
paratively unobstructed plains of the valley. 

Worth soon reunited his division on the main straight road to the 
capital, and was joined by General Pillow, who, advancing from 
Coyoacan to attack the rear of San Antonio, as we have already re- 
lated, soon perceived that the hacienda had fallen, and immediately 
turned to the left, through a broken country of swamps and ditches, 
in order to share in the attack on Cuurususco. And here, it was 
felt on all sides, that the last stand must be made by Mexico in front 
of her capital. 

The hamlet or scattered houses of Churubusco, formed a strong 
military position on the borders of the stream which crosses the 
highway, and, besides the fortified and massive convent of San 
Pablo, it was guarded by a téte de pont with regular bastions and 
curtains at the head of a bridge over which the road passes from 
the hacienda of San Antonio to the city. The stream was a de- 
fence ;—the nature of the adjacent country was a defence;—and 


here the fragments of the Mexican army,—cavalry, artillery and 
51 


398 BATTLE AT THE CONVENT AND TETE DE PONT. 


infantry, had been collected from every quarter, — panic stricken, it 
is true, —yet apparently resolved to contest the passage of the last 
outwork of importance in front of the garita of San Antonio Abad. 

When Worth and Pillow reached this point, Twiggs had already 
been sometime hotly engaged in attacking the embattled convent. 
The two advancing Generals immediately began to manceuvre close- 
ly upon the ¢éte de pont, which was about four hundred and fifty 
yards east of the convent, where Twiggs still earnestly plied the 
enemy. Various brigades and regiments under Cadwallader, Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Smith, Garland, Clark, Major White and Lieutenant 
Colonel Scott continued to press onward towards the ¢éte de pont, 
until by gradual encroachments under a tremendous fire, they at- 
tained a position which enabled them to assault and carry the for- 
midable work by the bayonet. But the convent still held out. 
Twenty minutes after the ¢éée de pont had been taken, and after a 
desperate battle of two hours and a half, that stronghold threw out 
the white flag. Yet it is probable that even then the conflict would 
not have ended, had not the 3d infantry under Captains Alexander, 
J. M. Smith, and Lieutenant O. L. Shepherd, cleared the way by 
fire and the bayonet to enter the work. 

Whilst this gallant task was being performed in front of the 
Mexican defences, Generals Pierce and Shields had been engaged 
on our left, in turning the enemy’s works so as to prevent the escape 
of the garrisons, and to oppose the extension of numerous corps 
from the rear, upon and around our left. By a winding march of a 
mile around to the right, this division under the command of Shields, 
found itself on the edge of an open, wet meadow, near the main 
road to the capital, in the presence of nearly four thousand of the 
enemy’s infantry, a little in the rear of Churubusco. Shields posted 
his right at a strong edifice, and extended his left wing parallel to 
the road, to outflank the enemy towards the capital. But the Mexi- 
cans extended their right more rapidly, and were supported by 
several regiments of cavalry, on better ground. Shields, accord- 
ingly, concentrated his division about a hamlet, and attacked in 
front. The battle was long and bravely sustained with varied suc- 
cess, but finally resulted in crowning with victory the zeal and cour- 
age of the American commander and his gallant troops. Shields 
took 380 prisoners, including officers; while at Churubusco seven 
field pieces, some ammunition, one standard, three Generals, and 
1261 prisoners, including other officers, were the fruits of the sharp- 
ly contested victory. 

This was the last conquest on that day of conqitens As soon 


THEIR CAPTURE — FLIGHT OF THE MEXICANS. 399 


as the téfe de pont fell, Worth’s and Pillow’s divisions rushed on- 
ward by the highway towards the city, which now rose in full sight 
before them, at the distance of four miles. Bounding onward, 
flushed and exultant, they encountered Shields’ division, now also 
victorious, and all combined in the headlong pursuit of the flying 
foe. At length the columns parted, and a small part of Harney’s 
cavalry, led by Captain Kearney of the 1st dragoons, dashed to the 
front and charged the retreating Mexicans up to the very gates of 
the city. 

Thus terminated the first series of American victories in the val- 
ley of Mexico. 


Norte. It is ungracious to criticize unfavorably the conduct of a conquered foe, 
but there are some things in Santa Anna’s behavior at Contreras and Churubusco, 
which must not be passed silently. At Contreras, he came with aid, by a short and 
fine highway, to the field at alate period, when the Americans, moving slowly over 
an unknown and broken country, had already outflanked with a strong force, Valen- 
cia’s left, and he then made no effort whatever, with his large support, to relieve the 
beleagured general. If he did not design doing any thing, why did he come at all ; 
and, if as he says, he believed Valencia could, during the night, withdraw all his 
forces, after spiking his guns, by a secret path of which he apprised him, why did 
he not take the same path to aid him? Did he believe that it was best to lose Va- 
lencia and his division only, without risking the loss of the large support under his 
own command? Inthe morning of the 20th it was certainly too late for action, but 
Santa Anna must have been convinced, when he ordered the retreat from the Hacienda 
of San Antonio, and thus voluntarily opened a gate for Worth’s advance, that now. 
if ever, had arrived the moment for a general action in front of the city, the key of 
which, on the main road, was the convent of Churubusco and the adjacent works. 
The loss of Valencia’s army and materiel was undoubtedly disheartening, but, ac- 
cording to his own account, Santa Anna had been prepared for an event which he 
foresaw. This should not have destroyed his self-possession if he sincerely desired 
victory. When Contreras fell, he had, in reality, only lost a division consisting of 
five or six thousand men. The whole centre and left wing of his army were un- 
touched, and these must have numbered at least 20,000. Yet, if we admit the brave 
resistance of the garrison, only hastily thrown into the convent and works at Churu- 
busco, it may then be asked what masterly effort Santa Anna made (at the moment 
when he had actually drawn the American army into the valley) to bring on a gen- 
eral action with all the fresh troops either under his own command or under that of 
obedient, brave, skilful, and patriotic officers? The Mexican accounts of these ac- 
tions, and in fact, his own despatch from Tehuacan, dated 19th Nov. 1847, exhibit 
no able manceuvres on the last field with which he was perfectly and personally fa- 
miliar. The Americans stormed a single point, —and the battle was over, though 
bravely fought by those who were under cover and by the traitor battalion of San 
Patricio, formed of renegades from our army. The despatches of Santa Anna, like 
most of the Mexican despatches after military or political disaster, seem rather de- 
signed to criminate others, and to throw the whole blame of ultimate complete defeat 
on Valencia, than to point out the causes of conquest in spite of able generalship 
after the fall of Contreras. See Santa Anna’s despatches, Mexico 23 Aug. 1847; and 
Tehuacan, 19 Nov. 1847, in Pillow’s Court Martial, pp. 532 and 540. See also 
Apuntes para la historia de la guerra, &c., &c., chapters X VII—X VIII—XIX, and 
Ripley’s History of the War, vol. 2, p. 256; ‘‘.No part of the Mexican force was 
ready for battle, except Rincon’s command,”’ says this writer. 


GHAP TE Re Av. 
1847. 


WHY THE CITY WAS NOT ENTERED ON THE 20TH—CONDITION 
OF THE CITY—DELIBERATION OF THE MEXICAN CABINET AND 
PROPOSALS——REASONS WHY GENERAL SCOTT PROPOSED AND 
GRANTED THE ARMISTICE— DELIBERATIONS OF COMMISSIONERS 
— PARTIES AGAINST SANTA ANNA—FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIA- 
TION— MEXICAN DESIRE TO DESTROY SANTA ANNA. 


Ir was late in the day when the battles ended. One army was 
wearied with fighting and victory; the other equally oppressed by 
labor and defeat. The conquered Mexicans fled to their eastern 
defences or took refuge within the gates of their city. There was, 
for the moment, utter disorganization among the discomfited, while 
the jaded band of a few thousand invaders had to be rallied and re- 
formed in their ranks and regiments after the desperate conflicts of 
the day over so wide a field. It surely was not a proper moment 
for an unconcentrated army, almost cut off from support, three hun- 
dred miles in the interior of an enemy’s country, and altogether 
ignorant of the localities of a great capital containing nearly two 
hundred thousand inhabitants, to rush madly, at night fall, into the 
midst of that city. Mexico, too, was not an ordinary town with 
wide thoroughfares and houses like those in which the invaders had 
been accustomed to dwell. Spanish houses are almost castles in 
architectural strength and plan, while from their level and embattled 
roofs, a mob, when aroused by the spirit of revenge or despair, may 
do the service of a disciplined army. Nor was it known whether 
the metropolis had been defended by works along its streets, —by 
barricades, impediments and batteries, —among which the entangled 
assailants might be butchered with impunity in the narrow passages 
during the darkness and before they could concentrate upon any 
central or commanding spot. Repose and daylight were required 
before a prudent General would venture to risk the lives of his men 
and the success of his whole mission upon such a die. 

Accordingly the army was halted; the dispersed recalled, the 
wounded succored, the dead prepared for burial, and the tired 
troops ordered to bivouack on the ground they had wrested from the 
enemy. 


—— 


oe 


VIEW OF THE VOLCANOES FROM TACUBAYA. 


DELIBERATION OF THE MEXICAN CABINET AND PROPOSALS. 401 


Meanwhile the greatest consternation prevailed within the city. 
When Santa Anna reached the Palace, he hastily assembled the 
Ministers of State and other eminent citizens, and, after reviewing 
the disasters of the day and their causes, he proclaimed the indis- 
pensable necessity of recurring to a truce in order to take a long re- 
spite. There was a difference of opinion upon this subject; but it 
was finally agreed that a suspension of arms should be negotiated 
through the Spanish Minister and the British Consul General. 
Sefior Pacheco, the Minister of Foreign Relations, accordingly ad- 
dressed Messrs. Mackintosh and Bermudez de Castro, entreating 
them to effect this desired result. During the night the British Con- 
sul General visited the American camp, and was naturally anxious 
to spare the effusion of blood and the assault by an army on a city 
in which his country had so deep an interest. On the morning of 
the 21st, when General Scott was about to take up battering or as- 
saulting positions, to authorize him to summon the capital to sur- 
render or to sign an armistice with a pledge to enter at once into 
negotiations for peace, he was met by General Mora y Villamil and 
Senor Arrangoiz, with proposals for an armistice in order to bury 
the dead, but without reference to a treaty. Scott had already de- 
termined to offer the alternative of assault or armistice and treaty to 
the Mexican government, and this resolution had been long cherished 
by him. Accordingly he at once rejected the Mexican proposal, 
and, without summoning the city to surrender, despatched a note to 
Santa Anna, expressing his willingness to sign, on reasonable terms, 
a short armistice, in order that the American Commissioner and the 
Mexican Government, might amicably and honorably settle the in- 
ternational differences, and thus close an unnatural war in which too 
much blood had already been shed. This frank proposal, coming 
generously from the victorious chief, was promptly accepted. Com- 
missioners were appointed by the commanders of the two armies on 
the 22d; the armistice was signed on the 23d, and ratifications ex- 
chan sul on the 24th; and thus, the dispute was or a while transferred 
once more from the camp to the council chamber. On the morning 
of the 21st, the American army was posted in the different villages 
in the vicinity. Worth’s division occupied Tacubaya. Pillow’s 
Mixcoac, Twiggs’s San Angel, while Quitman’s remained still at 
San Agustin, where it had served during the battles of the 19th 
and 20th in protecting the rear and the trains of the army. ‘Tacu- 
baya became the residence of General Scott, and the head-quarters 
of the commander-in-chief were established in the Bishop’s Palace. 


402 REASONS WHY GENERAL SCOTT PROPOSED 


There are critics and politicians who are never satisfied with 
results, and, whilst their prophecies are usually dated after the 
events which they claim to have foreseen, they unfortunately find 
too much favor with the mass of readers who are not in the habit 
of ascertaining precisely what was known and what was not known 
at the period of the occurrences which they seek to condemn. 
General Scott has fallen under the heavy censure of these writers 
for offering the armistice and avoiding the immediate capture of the 
capital, the practicability of which they now consider as demon- 
strated. We propose to examine this question, but we believe that 
the practicability or impracticability of that event does not become 
one of the primary or even early elements of the discussion. 

If we understand the spirit of this age correctly, we must believe 
that mankind, purified by the progressive blessings of Christianity 
and modern civilization, desires the mitigation rather than the in- 
crease of the evils of war. It does not seek merely to avert danger 
or disaster from the forces of one party in the strife, but strives to 
produce peace with as little harm as possible to all who are engaged 
in warfare. It is not the mission of a soldier to kill, because his 
profession is that of arms. It is ever the imperative duty of a 
commander to stop the flow of human blood as soon as he per- 
ceives the slightest chance of peace; and if his honorable efforts 
fail entirely, through the folly or obstinacy of the foe, he will be 
more fully justified in the subsequent and stringent measures of 
coercion. 

The Mexican masses, mistaking vanity for true national pride, 
had hitherto persevered in resisting every effort to settle the inter- 
national difficulties. Diplomacy, with such a nation, is extremely 
delicate. If we exhibited symptoms of leniency, she became pre- 
sumptuous ;—if we pushed hostilities to the extreme, she grew 
doggedly obstinate. On the 21st of August her capital was in 
Scott’s power. His victorious army was at her gates. Two terrible 
battles had been fought, and the combatants on both sides had 
shown courage, skill and endurance. The Mexican army was 
routed, but not entirely dispersed or destroyed. At this moment it 
doubtless occurred to General Scott, and to all who were calm spec- 
tators of the scene, that before the last and fatal move was made, it 
was his duty to allow Mexico to save her point of honor by negotia- 
ting, ere the city was entered, and while she could yet proclaim to 
her citizens and the world, that her capital had never been seized 
by the enemy. This assuaged national vanity, and preserved the 
last vantage ground upon which the nation might stand with pride 


AND GRANTED THE ARMISTICE. 403 


if not with perfect confidence. It still left something to the con- 
quered people which was not necessary or valuable to us. 

There are other matters, unquestionably, that weighed much in 
the very responsible deliberations of General Scott. If our army 
entered the city triumphantly, or took it by assault, the frail elements 
of government still lingering at that period of disorganization, would 
either fly or be utterly destroyed. All who were in power, in that 
nation of jealous politicians and wily intriguers would be eager to 
shun the last responsibility. If Santa Anna should be utterly beaten, 
the disgrace would blot out the last traces of his remaining prestige. 
If so fatal a disaster occurred, as subsequent events proved, the 
Americans would be most unfortunately situated in relation to peace, 
for there would be no government to negotiate with! Santa Anna’s 
government was the only constitutional one that had existed in 
Mexico for a long period, and with such a legalized national author- 
ity peace must be concluded. It was not our duty to destroy a 
government and then gather,the fragments to reconstruct another 
with which we might treat. If a revolutionary, or provisional au- 
thority existed, what prospect had we of enduring pacification? 
What guaranty did we hold in a treaty celebrated with a military 
despot, a temporary chief, or a sudden usurper, that such a treaty’ 
could be maintained before the nation? What constitutional or 
legal right would an American general or commissioner have, to 
enter into such a compact? Was it not, therefore, Scott’s duty to 
act with such tender caution as not to endanger the fate of the only 
man who might still keep himself at the head of his rallied people? 

Besides these political considerations, there are others, of a mill- 
tary character, that will commend themselves to the prudent and the 
just. The unacclimated American army had marched from Puebla 
to the valley of Mexico during the rainy season, in a tropical zone, 
when the earth is saturated with water, and no one travels who can 
avoid exposure. Our men were forced to undergo the hardships of 
such a campaign, to make roads, to travel over broken ground, to 
wade marshes, to bivouack on the damp soil with scarce a shelter 
from the storm, to march day and night, and finally, without an 
interval of repose, to fight two of the sharpest actions of the war. 
The seven or eight thousand survivors of these actions, —many of 
whom were new levies—demanded care and zealous husbanding 
for future events. They were distant from the coast and cut off from 
support or immediate succor. The enemy’s present or prospective 
weakness was not to be relied on. Wisdom required that what was 
in the rear should be thought of as well as what was in advance. 


404 DELIBERATICNS OF COMMISSIONERS. 


May it not then be justly said that it was a proper moment for a 
heroic general to pause in front of a national capital containing two 
hundred thousand people, and to allow the civil arm to assume, for 
a moment of trial, the place of the military? Like a truly brave 
man, he despised the eclat of entermg the capital as Cortéz had 
done on nearly the same day of the same month, three hundred and 
twenty-six years before. Like a wise man, he considered the his- 
tory and condition of the enemy, instead of his personal glory, and 
laid aside the false ambition of a soldier, to exhibit the forbearance 
of a christian statesman. ! 


The American Commissioner unquestionably entered upon the 
negotiations in good faith, and it is probable that Santa Anna was 
personally quite as well disposed for peace. He, however, had a 
delicate game to play with the politicians of his own country, and 
_ was obliged to study carefully the posture of parties as well as the 

momentary strength of his friends and enemies. Well acquainted 
as he was with the value of men and the intrigues of the time, he 
would have been mad not to guard against the risk of ruin, and, 
accordingly, his first efforts were directed rather towards obtaining 
‘the ultumatum of the United States, than to pledging his own gov- 
ernment in any project which might prove either presently unpopular 
or destroy his future influence. The instructions, therefore, that 
were given to General José J. de Herrera, Bernardo Couto, Ignacio 
Mora y Villamil and Miguel Atristain, the Mexican commissioners, 
were couched in such extreme terms, that much could be yielded 
before there was a likelihood of approaching the American demands. 
In the meanwhile, as negotiations progressed, Mexico obtained time 
to rally her soldiers, to appease those who were discontented with 
the proposed peace, and to abjure the project if it should be found 
either inadmissible or impossible of accomplishment without loss of 
popularity. 

For several days consultations took place between Mr. Trist and 
the commissioners, but it was soon found that the American preten- 
sions in regard to the position of Texas, the boundary of the Rio 
Grande and the cession of New Mexico and Upper California, were 


1It will be remembered that even Cortéz had paused in the precincts of the ancient 
capital of the Aztecs, in order to give them a chance of escape before striking the 
fatal blow. See Prescott, vol. 3, p. 199. It is alittle remarkable also, that the dates 
of Scott’s and Cortéz’s victories coincide so closely. Cortéz’s victory was on the 
13th of August, 1521, Scott’s on the 20th of August, 1847. The date of Cortéz’s 
achievement is given according to the Old Style, but if we add ten days to bring it 
up to New Style, it will be corrected to the 23d of August! 


PARTIES AGAINST SANTA ANNA, 405 


of such a character that the Mexicans would not yield to them at the 
present moment. The popular feeling, stimulated by the rivals of 
Santa Anna, his enemies, and the demagogues, was entirely opposed 
to the surrender of territory. Sensible as the President was, that 
the true national interests demanded instantaneous peace, he was 
dissuaded by his confidential advisers from presenting a counter 
projét, which would have resulted in atreaty. Congress, moreover, 
had virtually dissolved by the precipitate departure of most of its 
members after the battles of the 20th. 

All the party leaders labored diligently at this crisis, but none of 
them with cordiality for Santa Anna, in whose negotiations of a 
successful peace with the United States, they either foresaw or 
feared the permanent consolidation of his power. The puros, or 
democrats, still clung to their admiration of the constitution of our 
Union; to their opposition to the standing army; to their desire 
for modifying the power and position of the church and its ministers, 
and to their united hostility against the President. They were loud 
in their exhortations to continue the war, while Olaguibel, one of 
their ablest men and most devoted lovers of American institutions, 
issued a strong manifesto against the projected treaty. ‘This was 
the party which, it is asserted, in fact desired the prolongation of 
the war until the destroyed nationality of Mexico took refuge from 
domestic intrigues, misgovernment and anarchy, in annexation to 
the United States. 

The monarquistas, who still adhered to the church and the army, 
proclaimed their belief in the total failure of the republican system. 
Revolutions and incessant turmoils, according to their opinions, 
could only be suppressed by the strong arm of power, and in their 
ranks had again appeared General Mariano Paredes y Arrellaga, 
who, returning from exile, landed in disguise at Vera Cruz, and 
passing secretly through the American lines, proceeded to Mexico 
to continue his machinations against Santa Anna, whom he cordially 
hated. 

The moderados formed a middle party equally opposed to the ul- 
traisms of monarchy and democracy. They counted among their 
number, many of the purest and wisest men in the republic, and al- 
though they were not as inimical to the United States as the monar- 
quistas, or as many of the puros pretended to be, yet they cordially 
desired or hoped to preserve the nationality and progressive repub- 
licanism of Mexico. In this junto Santa Anna found a few parti- 
zans who adhered to him more from policy than principle, for all 


classes had learned to distrust a person who played so many parts in 
52 


406 FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATION. 


the national drama of intrigue, war, and government. As a party, 
they were doubtless unwilling to risk their strength and prospects 
upon a peace which might be made under his auspices. 

In this crisis the President had no elements of strength still firmly 
attached to him but the army, whose favor, amid all his reverses, he 
generally contrived to retain or to win. But that army was now 
much disorganized, and the national finances were so low that he 
was scarcely able to maintain it from day to day. The mob, com- 
posed of the lower classes, and the beastly leperos, knowing nothing 
of the principles of the war, and heedless of its consequences, — 
plied moreover by the demagogues of all the parties, — shouted 
loudly for its continuance, and thus the president was finally forced 
to yield to the external pressure, and to be governed by an impulse 
which he was either too timid or too weak to control. 

The armistice provided that the Americans should receive sup- 
plies from the city, and that no additional fortifications should be 
undertaken during its continuance; nevertheless the American trains 
were assailed by the populace of the city, and, it is alleged, that 
Santa Anna disregarded the provision forbidding fortifications. 
When it became evident to the American commissioner and General 
Scott, that the Mexicans were merely trifling and temporizing, — 
that the prolongation of the armistice would be advantageous to the 
enemy, without affording any correspondent benefits to us, —and 
when their supplies had been increased so as to afford ample sup- 
port for the army during the anticipated attack on the city, —it was 
promptly resolved to renew the appeal to arms. Accordingly, on 
the 6th of September, General Scott addressed Santa Anna, calling 
his attention to the infractions of the compact, and declaring that 
unless satisfaction was made for the breaches of faith before noon of 
the following day, he would consider the armistice terminated from 
that hour. Santa Anna returned an answer of false recriminations, 
and threw off the mask. He asserted his willingness to rely on 
arms ;—he issued a bombastic appeal to the people, in which he 
announced that the demands of the Americans would have converted 
the nation into a colony of our Union. He improved upon the pre- 
tended patriotic zeal of all the parties—puros, moderados, monar- 
quistas and mob—who had proclaimed themselves in favor of the 
war. Instead of opposing or arguing the question, he caught the 
war strain of the hour, and sent it forth to the multitude in trumpet 
tones. He was determined not to be hedged or entrapped by those 
who intrigued to destroy him, and resolved that if he must fall, his 
opponents should share the political disaster. Nor was he alone in 


MEXICAN DESIRE TO DESTROY SANTA ANNA. A407 


his electioneering gasconade, for General Herrera — a man who had 
been notoriously the advocate of peace, both before and since the 
rupture, —addressed the clergy and the people, craving their aid 
by prayer, money, fire and sword, to exterminate the invaders! 
All classes were, thus, placed in a false and uncandid position. 
This is a sad picture of political hypocricy based upon the mis- 
named popular will of a country which had for twenty years been 
demoralized by the very chieftain who was about to reap the direful 
harvest he had sown in the hearts of his people. Every man, every 
party, acknowledged, privately, the impolicy of continued hostili- 
ties, yet all men and all parties were resolved that Santa Anna 
should not make the peace whilst an American army remained in 
the country to sustain it, or an American government dispensed mil- 
lions to pay for the ceded territory. Distrusting his honesty and 
patriotism, they believed that the money would only be squandered 
among his parasites, or used for the prolonged corruption and dis- 
organization of their country.» With gold and an army they believed 
him omnipotent; but, stripped of these elements of power in Mexi- 
co, the great magician dwindled into a haggard and harmless witch. 
Combinations arose readily and bravely against the man whose 
sway was irresistible as long as he dealt with his countrymen alone 
or preserved a loyal army and dependant church, whose strength and 
wealth were mutual supports. The sky was dark and lowering 
around him, and he must have acknowledged secretly, that the po- 
litical parties of his country, if not his countrymen universally, were 
more anxious to destroy him than the Americans. The army of the 
invaders, they hoped, might perform a task in this drama, which the 
Mexicans themselves could not achieve; and there are multitudes 
who would have been glad to see its end become tragic by the death 
of one whom they feared in prosperity, and despised in adversity. 


CHAPTER XVT. 
1847. 


MILITARY POSITION OF THE AMERICANS AT THE END OF THE AR- 
MISTICE — MEXICAN DEFENCES — PLAN OF ATTACK — RECON- 
NOISSANCES OF SCOTT AND MASON — IMPORTANCE OF MEXICAN 
POSITION AT MOLINO DEL REY—SCOTT’S SCHEME OF CAPTURING 
THE CITY—BATTLE OF MOLINO DEL REY — REFLECTIONS AND 
CRITICISM ON THIS BATTLE — PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK CHA- 
PULTEPEC—  STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC AND OF THE CITY GATES 
OF SAN COSME AND BELEN — RETREAT OF THE MEXICAN ARMY 
AND GOVERNMENT — AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF THE CITY OF 
MEXICO. 


Avr the termination of the armistice the position of the American 
forces was greatly changed from what it had been on the morning 
of the 20th of August. The occupation of San Agustin had 
been followed by that of Contreras, San Angel, Coyoacan and 
Churubusco in the course of that day, and on the next, Mixcoac 
and 'Tacubaya were taken possession of. Thus the whole southern 
and south-western portion of the valley, in front of Mexico, were 
now held by the Americans; and this disposition of their forces, 
commanding most of the principal approaches to the capital, 
enabled them, for the first time to select their point of attack. 

In reconnoitering the chief outworks of the Mexicans by which 
he was still opposed, General Scott found that there were several 
of great importance. Directly north of his headquarters at Ta- 
cubaya, and distant about a mile, arose the lofty, isolated hill of 
Chapultepec, surrounded by its massive edifice, half castle, half 
palace, crowned with cannon. This point, it was known, had 
been strongly fortified to maintain the road leading from Tacubaya 
to the garita of San Cosmé on the west of the city. Westwardly, 
beyond the hill of Chapultepec, whose southern side and feet are 
surrounded by a dense grove of cypresses, and on a rising ground 
within the military works designed to strengthen the castle, was the 
Molino del Rey, or King’s Mill, which was represented to be a 
cannon, foundry to which large quantities of church bells had been 
sent to be cast into guns. Still further west, but near the Molino 
or Mill, was the fortified Casa Mata, containing a large deposite of 
powder. 


MEXICAN DEFENCES — PLAN OF ATTACK. 409 


These,—together with the strong citadel, lying near the garita 
of Belen in the south-western corner of the city,—were the prin- 
cipal external defences still remaining beyond the immediate limits 
of the capital. The city itself stands on a slight swell between lake 
Tezcoco and the western edge of the valley, and, throughout its 
greater extent, is girdled by a ditch or navigable canal extremely 
difficult to bridge in the face of an enemy, which serves the Mexi- 
cans not only as a military defence but for drainage and protection 
of their customs. Each of the eight strong city gates were pro- 
tected by works of various character and merit. Outside and 
within the cross fires of these gates there were other obstacles 
scarcely less formidable towards the south. ‘The main approaches 
to the city across the flat lands of the basin are raised on causeways 
flanked by wide and deep ditches designed for their protection and 
drainage. These causeways, as well as the minor cross roads 
which are similarly built, were cut in many places and had their 
bridges destroyed so as to impede the American’s advance and to 
form an entangling net work; while the adjacent meadows were in 
this rainy season either filled with water in many places or liable to 
be immediately flooded by a tropical storm. 

With these fields for his theatre of action, and these defences still 
in front of him, it was an important and responsible question, whether 
General Scott should attack Mexico on the west or on the south. 

There can be hardly a doubt that the capture of the hill and 
castle of Chapultepec, before assaulting the city, was imperatively 
demanded by good generalship. If the capital were taken first, 
the Mexicans instead of retreating towards Guadalupe and the 
north, when we attacked and captured from the south, would of 
course retire to the avoided stronghold of Chapultepec ; and, if our 
slender forces were subsequently obliged to leave the city in order 
to take the fortress, our sick, wounded and thinned regiments would 
be left to the mercy of the mob and the leperos. Chapultepec would 
thus become the nucleus and garrison of the whole Mexican army, 
and we might be compelled to fight two battles at the same time,— 
one in the city, and the other at the castle. But, by capturing the | 
castle first, and seizing the road northward beyond it, we possessed 
all the most important outworks in the lap of the valley, and cut 
off the retreat of the Mexicans from the city either to the west, to 
the castle, or towards our rear in the valley. We obtained, more- 
over, absolute command of two of the most important entrances to 
the capital, inasmuch as from the eastern foot of the hill of Cha- 
pultepec two causeways, and aqueducts raised on lofty arches, di- 


410 RECONNOISSANCES OF SCOTT AND MASON. 


verged northeastwardly and eastwardly towards the city. The 
northernmost of these entered Mexico by the garita of San Cosmé, 
while the other reached it by that of Belen near the citadel. 

In attacking Chapultepec, it was important to consider the value 
of the Molino del Rey or King’s Mill, and Casa Mata, both of 
which, as we noticed, lie on rising ground within the works de- 
signed to protect Chapultepec. Upon examination it will be found 
that the Molino del Rey, or King’s Mill, bears the relation of a very 
strong western outwork both to the castle of Chapultepec and its 
approaches by the inclined plain which serves to ascend its summit. 
As the Molino del Rey is commanded and defended by the castle, 
so it reciprocally, commands and defends the only good approach 
to the latter.! As long as the Molino was held by the Mexicans, 
it would of course, form an important stronghold easily reached 
from the city around the rear of Chapultepec; so that if Scott at- 
tacked the castle and hill from the south, where the road that as- 
cends it commenced, he would be in danger of an attack on his 
left flank from the Mexicans in the defences at Molino and Casa 
Mata. 

If the King’s Mill fell, the result to the enemy would be that, in 
addition to the loss of an important outwork and the consequent 
weakening of the main work, its occupants or defenders would be 
driven from a high position above the roads and fields into the low 
grounds at the base of Chapultepec, which were completely com- 
manded from the Molino, and thus the Mexicans would be unable 
to prevent the American siege pieces from taking up the most 
favorable position for battermg the castle. It was important, 
therefore, not only that the foundry should be destroyed, but, in a 
stratagetic view, it was almost indispensable in relation to future 
operations that the position should be taken. It is undeniable, as 
following events showed, that the Mexicans regarded it as one of 
their formidable military points. The capture of Chapultepec and 
the destruction of the post at Molino del Rey were, accordingly, 
determined on as preliminary to the final assault upon the city. 


As soon as the armistice was terminated bold reconnoissances 
were made by our engineers in the direction of Chapultepec and 
the Molino or King’s Mill and Casa Mata. On the 7th of Septem- 
ber Santa Anna’s answer to Scott’s despatch was received, and on 
the same day the Commander-in-Chief and General Worth exam- 
ined the enemy’s formidable dispositions near and around the castle- 


'See Lieut. Smith’s Memoir, ut antea, p. 8. 


IMPORTANCE OF MEXICAN POSITIONS AT MOLINO DEL REY. 411 


crowned hill. The Mexican array was found to consist of an ex- 
tended line of cavalry and infantry, sustained by a field battery of 
four guns, either occupying directly or supporting a system of de- 
fences collateral to the castle and summit; but as the forces were 
skilfully masked a very inadequate idea of the extent of the lines was 
obtained. Captain Mason’s reconnoissance on the morning of the 
same day, represented the enemy’s left as resting on and occupying 
the group of strong stone buildings at the Molino adjacent to the 
grove at the foot of Chapultepec and directly under the castle’s 
guns. The right of his line rested on the Casa Mata, at the foot 
of the ridge sloping gradually to the plain below from the heights 
above Tacubaya; while, midway between these buildings, were 
the field battery and infantry forces disposed on either side to sup- 
port it. This reconnoissance indicated that the centre was the 
weak point of the position, and that its left flank was the strongest. 
In the Mill or Molino, on the left, was the brigade of General 
Leon, reinforced by the brigade:of General Rangel; in the Casa 
Mata, on the right, was the brigade of General Perez; and on the 
intermediate ground was the brigade of General Ramirez, with sev- 
eral pieces of artillery. ‘The Mexican reserve was composed of 
the 1st and 3d light, stationed in the groves of Chapultepec, while 
the cavalry consisting of 4,000 men, rested at the hacienda of Mo- 
rales, not very far from the field. Such was the arrangement 
of the Mexican forces made by Santa Anna in person on the 7th 
of September, though it has been alleged by Mexican writers that 
it was somewhat changed during the following night. The wily 
chief had not allowed the time to pass during the negotiation be- 
tween Trist and the Commissioners in political discussion alone. 
Regarding the failure of the treaty as most probable, he had striven 
to strengthen once more the military arm of his nation, and the first 
result of this effort was demonstrated in his disposition of troops at 
El Molino del Rey. The Americans’ attack upon Chapultepec, as 
commanding the nearest and most important access,to the city had 
been foreseen by him as soon as the armistice ended, and as a mili- 
tary man, he well knew that the isolated hill and castle could not be 
protected by the defenders within its walls alone or by troops sta- 
tioned either immediately at its base or on the sloping road along 
its sides. 

General Scott’s plan of assault upon the city seems now to have 
been matured, though it required several days for full development 
according to the reconnoissances of his engineers. He designed to 
make the main assault on the west and not on the south of the city. 


412 SCOTT’S SCHEME OF CAPTURING THE CITY. 


Possessing himself suddenly of the Molino del Rey and the adjacent 
grounds he was to retire after the capture without carrying Chapul- 
tepec, the key of the roads to the western garitas of San Cosmé 
and Belen. The immediate capture of Chapultepec would have 
been a signal to Santa Anna to throw his whole force into the western 
defence of the city ; but by retiring, after the fall of the Molino or 
King’s Mill, and by playing off skilfully on the south of the city in 
the direction of the garita of San Antonio Abad, Scott would effec- 
tually divert the attention of the Mexicans to that quarter and thus in- 
duce them to weaken the western defences and strengthen the south- 
ern. At length, at the proper moment, by a rapid inversion of his 
forces from the south to the west, he intended to storm the castle- 
crowned hill, and rush along the causeways to the capital before they 
enemy could recover his position. 


In pursuance of this plan, an attack upon El Molino del Rey and 
La Casa Mata was the first great work to be accomplished, and as 
soon as Santa Anna’s reply closing the armistice was received on 
the 7th the advance towards that place was ordered for the follow- 
ing morning. This important work was entrusted to General 
Worth, whose division was reinforced by three squadrons of dra- 
goons ; one company of 270 mounted riflemen under Major Sumner; 
three field pieces under Captain Drum; two twenty-four pounders 
under Captain Huger, and Cadwallader’s brigade 784 strong. The 
reconnoissances had been completed; at three o’clock in the morn- 
ing of the 8th of September the several columns were put in 
motion on as many different routes, and when the gray dawn en- 
abled them to be seen they were as accurately posted as if in mid- 
day for review. Colonel Duncan was charged with the general 
disposition of the artillery, while the cavalry were under Major 
Sumner. 

At the first glimmer of day Huger’s powerful guns saluted the 
walls of El Molino and continued to play in that quarter until this 
point of the enemy’s line became sensibly shaken. At that moment 
the assaulting party, commanded by Wright of the 8th Infantry, 
dashed forward to assault the centre. Musketry and cannister were 
showered upon them by the aroused enemy, but on they rushed, 
driving infantry and artillerists at the point of the bayonet, captur- 
ing the field pieces and trailing them on the flying foe, until the 
Mexicans perceiving that they had been assailed by a mere handful 
of men suddenly rallied and reformed. In an instant the reassured 
and gallant foe opened upon the Americans a terrific fire of musket- 


BATTLE OF MOLINO DEL REY. 413 


ry, striking down eleven out of the fourteen officers who composed 
the command, and, for the time, staggering the staunch assailants. 
But this paralysis continued for an instant only. A light battalion 
which had been held to cover Huger’s battery, commanded by Cap- 
tain E. Kirby Smith, rushed forward to support, and executing its 
bloody task amid horrible carnage, finally succeeded in carrying 
the line and occupying it with our troops. In the meanwhile Gar- 
land’s brigade, sustained by Drum’s artillery assaulted the enemy’s 
left near the Molino, and after an obstinate contest drove him from 
his position under the protecting guns of Chapultepec. Drum’s 
section and Huger’s battering guns advanced to the enemy’s posi- 
tion, and his captured pieces were now opened on the retreating 
force. While these efforts were successfully making on the Mexi- 
can centre and left, Duncan’s battery blazed on the right, and 
Colonel Mackintosh was ordered to assault that point. The advance 
of his brigade soon brought it between the enemy and Duncan’s guns, 
and their fire was of course discontinued. Onwards sternly and 
steadily moved the troops towards the Casa Mata, which, as it was 
approached, proved to be a massive stone work surrounded with 
bastioned entrenchments and deep ditches, whence a deadly fire 
was delivered and kept up without intermission upon our advancing 
troops until they reached the very slope of the parapet surrounding 
the citadel. The havoc was dreadful. A large proportion of the 
command was either killed or wounded ; but still the ceaseless fire 
from the Casta Mata continued its deadly work, until the maimed 
and broken band of gallant assailants was withdrawn to the left of 
Duncan’s battery where its remnants rallied. Duncan and Sumner had 
meanwhile been hotly engaged in repelling a.charge of Mexican 
cavalry on the left, and having just completed the work, the brave 
Colonel found his countrymen retired from before the Casa Mata 
and the field again open for his terrible weapons. Directing them 
at once upon the fatal fort he battered the Mexicans from its walls, 
and as they fled from its protecting enclosure he continued to play 
upon the fugitives as relentlessly as they had recently done upon 
Mackintosh and his doomed brigade. | 

The Mexicans were now driven from the field at every point. La 
Casa Mata was blown up by the conquerors. Captured ammuni- 
tion and cannon moulds in El Molino were destroyed. And the 
Americans, according to Scott’s order previous to the battle, returned 
to Tacubaya, with three of the enemy’s guns, (a fourth being spiked 
and useless,) eight hundred prisoners including fifty-two commis- 


sioned officers, and a large quantity of small arms, with gun and 
a3 


414 - REFLECTIONS AND CRITICISM ON THIS BATTLE. 


musket ammunition. Three thousand two hundred and fifty-one 
Americans, had on this day, driven four times their number from 
a selected field; but they had paid a large and noble tribute to 
death for the victory. Nine officers were included in the one 
hundred and sixteen of our killed, and forty-nine officers in the six 
hundred and sixty-five of our wounded. ‘The Mexicans suffered 
greatly in wounded and slain, while the gallant General Leon and 
Colonel Balderas fell fighting bravely on the field of battle. } 


The battle was over by nine o’clock in the morning. The Ameri- 
cans, after collecting their dead and wounded, retired from the 
bloody field, but they were not allowed to mourn over their painful 
losses. ‘They had suffered severely, yet the battle had been most 
disastrous to the Mexicans. The fine commands of Generals Perez 
and Leon and of Colonel Balderas, were broken up; the position 
once destroyed, could not serve for a second defence, and the mor- 
ale of the soldiers had suffered. The Mexicans were beginning to 
believe that mere formidable masses, if not directed by skilful chiefs, 
were, in truth, but harmless things, and not to be relied on very 
confidently for national defence. The new levies, the old regular 


1'This was a great but a rash victory. The American infantry relying chiefly on 
the bayonet and expecting to effect its object by surprise and even at an earlier hour 
of the morning, advanced with portions of the three thousand two hundred and fifty- 
one men to attack at least eleven or twelve thousand Mexicans upon a field selected 
by themselves, protected by stone walls and ditches, commanded by the fortress of 
Chapultepec and the ground swept by artillery, while four thousand cavalry threa- 
tened an overwhelming charge! We have no criticism to make as to inequality of 
numbers, but although we believe that our officers did not anticipate so strong 
a resistance, we are satisfied that it would have been better to rely at first upon the 
fatal work of mortars and siege pieces, of which we had abundance, and, then, to 
have permitted the bayonet to complete the task the battering train had begun. If the 
difficulty of moving rapidly to the scene of action in the night, prevented a night at- 
tack and surprise, it would» probably have been better to change the plan of battle 
even atalate hour. In the end, Duncan’s great guns, effectually destroyed a post 
which had been the slaughter house of many a noble American soldier. The Mexi- 
can cavalry behaved shamefully. In Colonel Ramsey’s notes on the translation of 
the Mexican Apuntes para la historia de la Guerra, §c., p. 347, he says : ‘it is now 
known ‘in Mexico that Santa Anna was in possession of General Scott’s order to 
attack the Molino del Rey in a few hours after it was written, and during the whole 
of the 7th, troops were taking up their positions on that ground. It is believed further 
that Santa Anna knew the precise force that was to attack. When, therefore, Scott 
supposed that Worth would surprise the Mills and Casa Mata, he was met by what? 
Shall the veil be raised a little further? There was a traitor among the list of high 
ranking officers in the Mexican army, and for gold he told the Mexican force. Scott 
had been betrayed by one not an American, not an officer or soldier, but Santa Anna 
was betrayed by one of his own officers and a Mexican. Santa Anna believed the 
information he received and acted on it. General Scott did not believe what he 
learned at night, and —the victory was won !”’ 


PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK CAAPULTEPEC. A415 


army, and the volunteers of the city, had all been repeatedly beaten 
in the valley both before and since the armistice. Nevertheless, 
Santa Anna, in spite of all these defeats and disasters at the Molino 
and Casa Mata, caused the bells of the city to be merrily rung for 
a victory, and sent forth proclamations by extraordinary couriers, in 
every direction, announcing the triumph of Mexican valor and arms ! 

On the morning of the 11th, Scott proceeded to carry out the 
remainder of his projected capture of the capital. His troops had 
been already for some time hovering around the southern gates, and 
he now surveyed them closely covered by General Pillow’s division 
and Riley’s brigade of Twigg’s command, and then ordered Quit- 
man from Coyoacan to join Pillow by daylight, before the southern 
gates. ' By night, however, the two Generals with their commands 
were to pass the two intervening miles between their position and 
Tacubaya where they would unite with Worth’s division, while 
General Twiggs was left, with Riley, Captain Taylor and Steptoe, 
in front of the gates to manceuvré, threaten, or make false attacks 
so as to occupy and deceive the enemy. General Smith’s brigade 
was halted in supporting distance at San Angel, in the rear, till the 
morning of the 13th, so as to support our general depot at Mix- 
coac. ‘This stratagem against the south was admirably executed 
throughout the 12th and until the afternoon of the 13th, when it 
was too late for Santa Anna to recover from his delusion. 

In the meanwhile preparations had been duly made for the ope- 
rations on the west by the capture of Chapultepec. Heavy bat- 
teries were established and the bombardment and cannonade under 
Captain Huger, were commenced early on the morning of the 12th. 
Pillow and Quitman had been in position, as ordered, since early on 
the night of the 11th, and Worth was now commanded to hold his 
division in reserve near the foundry to support Pillow, while Smith 
was summoned to sustain Quitman. Twiggs still continued to 
inform us with his guns that he held the Mexicans on the defensive 
in that quarter and kept Santa Anna in constant anxiety. Scott’s 
positions and stratagy perfectly disconcerted him. One moment on 
the south — the next at Tacubaya — then reconnoitering the south 
again —and, at last, concentrating his forces so that they might be 
easily moved northward to Chapultepec or southward to the gate 
of San Antonio Abad. These movements rendered him constantly 
sensible of every hour’s importance, yet he would not agree with 
the veteran Bravo who commanded Chapultepec and was convinced 
that the hill and castle would be the points assailed. During the 
whole of the 12th the American pieces, strengthened by the cap- 


416 STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC, AND OF 


tured guns, poured an incessant shower of shot into the fortress 
until nightfall, when the assailants slept upon their arms, to be in 
position for an early renewal on the 13th. 

At half-past five in the morning the American guns recom- 
menced upon Chapultepec ; but still Santa Anna clung to the 
southern gates while Scott was silently preparing for the final assault 
according to a preconcerted signal. About 8 o’clock, judging that 
the missiles had done the work, the heavy batteries suddenly ceased 
firing, and instantaneously Pillow’s division rushed forward from 
the conquered Molino del Rey, and overbearing all obstacles, and 
rapidly clambering up the steep acclivities, raised their scaling lad- 
ders and poured over the walls. 1 

Quitman, supported by Generals Shields and Smith, was mean- 
while advancing rapidly towards the south-east of the works, over 
a causeway with cuts and batteries defended by an army strongly 
posted outside the works towards the east. But nothing could 
resist the impulse of the storming division, though staunchly opposed 
and long held at bay, and whilst it rushed to complete the work, 
the New York, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania volunteers, under 
Shields, crossed the meadows in front amid a heavy fire, and en- 
tered the outer enclosure of Chapultepec in time to join the en- 
terprise from the west. The castle was now possessed at every 
point. The onslaught had been so rapid and resistless, that the 
Mexicans stood appalled as the human tide foamed and burst over 
their battlements. Men who had been stationed to fire the mines 
either fled or were shot down. Officers fell at their posts, and the 
brave old Bravo, fighting to the last, was taken prisoner with a 
thousand combatants. 

Santa Anna was at last undeceived. He detached at once the 
greater portion of his troops from near the garita of San Antonio 
Abad ; but it was too late ; — the key to the roads of San Cosmé and 
Belen had fallen; the advance works were weak, and the routed 
troops of Chapultepec fled rapidly along the causeways and over 


1'The importance of the previous capture of E] Molino del Rey was proved in this 
assault upon Chapultepec, for Pillow’s division started from this very Mill, from 
within the enemy’s work, and found itself on an equality with the foe up to the very 
moment of scaling the walls at the crest of the mount, whereas the other assaulting 
column under Quitman taking the only remaining road to the castle, a causeway 
leading from Tacubaya, was successfully held at bay by the outworks defending this 
road at the base of the hill, until after the castle was taken, and the opposing force 
was taken in rear by troops passing through and around Chapultepec. Had E] 
Molino still been held by the Mexicans, the siege pieces would not have been allowed 
to play uninterruptedly, nor would the assaulting parties been able to take position or 
attack with impunity. See Lieut. Smith’s Memoir, ut antea p. 8. 


# 


THE CITY GATES OF SAN COSME AND BELEN. A417 


the meadows. Still as they retreated they fought courageously, and 
as our men approached the walls, the fresh troops in the neighbor- 
hood poured their volleys from behind parapets, windows and stee- 
ples. Nevertheless, Santa Anna dared not withdraw all his forces 
in the presence of Twigg’s threatening division on the south. 

Meanwhile Worth had seized the causeway and aqueduct of San 

Cosmé, while Quitman advanced by the other towards the garita of 
Belen. The double roads on each side of these aqueducts which 
rested on open arches spanning massive pillars, afforded fine points 
for attack and defence. Both the American Generals were prompt 
in pursuing the retreating foe, while Scott, who had ascended the 
battlements of Chapultepec and beheld the field spread out beneath 
him like a map, hastened onward all the stragglers and detach- 
ments to join the flushed victors in the final assault. 
- Worth speedily reached the street of San Cosmé and became 
engaged in desperate conflict with the enemy from the houses and 
defences.. Ordering forward Cadwallader’s brigade with mountain 
howitzers, preceded by skirmishers and pioneers with pick-axes 
and crow bars to force windows and doors and to burrow through 
the walls, he rapidly attained an equality of position with the 
enemy; and by 8 o’clock in the evening, after carrying two bat- 
teries in this suburb, he planted a heavy mortar and piece of artil- 
lery from which he might throw shot and shells into the city during 
the night. Having posted guards and sentinels and sheltered his 
weary men, he at length found himself with no obstacle but the 
gate of San Cosmé between his gallant band and the great square 
of Mexico. 

The pursuit by Quitman on the road to the gate of Belen had 
been equally hot and successful. Scott originally designed that 
this General should only manceuvre and threaten the point so as to 
favor Worth’s more dangerous enterprise by San Cosmé. But the 
brave and impetuous Quitman, seconded by the eager spirits of his 
division, longing for the distinction of which they had been hitherto 
deprived, heeded neither the external defences nor the more dan- 
gerous power of the neighboring citadel. Onward he pressed _ his 
men under flank and direct fires; —seized an intermediate battery 
of two guns;—carried the gate of Belen, —and thus, before two 
o’clock, was the first to enter the city and maintain his position 
with a loss proportionate to the steady firmness of his desperate 
assault. After nightfall, he added several new defences to the point 
he had won so gloriously, and sheltering his men as well as he was 


418 RETREAT OF THE MEXICAN ARMY AND GOVERNMENT. 


able, awaited the return of daylight under the guns of the formida- 
ble and unsubdued citadel. 

So ended the battles of the 13th of September, 1847, and so, in 
fact, ended the great contests of the war. Santa Anna had been 
again ‘disconcerted”’ in his plan of battle, by Scott, as he had 
previously been thwarted by Valencia’s disobedience and wilfulness. 
Scott would not attack the south of the city where he expected him, 
and consequently the American chief conquered the point where 
he had not expected him! 

When darkness fell upon the city a council,of disheartened offi- 
cers assembled in the Mexican citadel. After the customary crimi- 
nation and recrimination had been exhausted between Santa Anna 
and other officers, it was acknowledged that the time had come to 
decide upon future movements. Beaten in every battle, they now 
saw one American General already within the city gate, while 
another was preparing to enter on the following morning, and kept 
the city sleepless by the loud discharges of his heavy cannon or 
bursting bombs as they fell in the centre of the capital. General 
Carrera believed the demoralization of his army complete. Lom- 
bardini, Alcorta and Perez coincided in his opinion, and Santa 
Anna at length closed the panic stricken council by declaring that 
Mexico must be evacuated duringthe nightand bynaming Lombar- 
dini General-in-Chief, and General Perez second in command. 
Between eight and nine o’clock Seftor Trigueros called at the cita- 
del with his coach, and bore away the luckless military President 
to the sacred town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, three miles north of the 
capital. 

_ The retreat of the Mexican army began at midnight, and not 
long after, a deputation from the Ayuntamiento, or City Council, 
waited upon General Scott with the information that the federal 
government and troops had fled from the capital. The haggard 
visitors demanded terms of capitulation in favor of the church, the 
citizens and the municipal authorities. Scott refused the ill-timed 
request, and promising no terms that were not self imposed, sent 
word to Quitman and Worth to advance as soon as possible on the 
following morning, and, guarding carefully against treachery, to 
occupy the city’s strongest and most commanding points. Worth 
was halted at the Alameda, a few squares west of the Plaza, but 
Quitman was allowed the honor of advancing to the great square, 
and hoisting the American flag on the National Palace. At 9 
o’clock the Commander-in-Chief, attended by his brilliant staff, rode 
into the vast area in front of the venerable Cathedral and Palace, 


AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF THE CITY OF MEXICO. 419 


amid the shouts of the exulting army to whose triumphs his prudence 
and genius had so greatly contributed. It was a proud moment for 
Scott, and he might well have flushed with excitement as he as- 
cended the Palace stairs and sat down in the saloon which had been 
occupied by so many Viceroys, Ministers, Presidents and Generals, 
to write the brief order announcing his occupation of the capital of 
Mexico. Yet the elation was but momentary. The cares of con- 
quest were now exchanged for those of preservation. He was 
allowed no interval of repose from anxiety. His last victories had 
entirely disorganized the Republic. There was no longer a national 
government, a competent municipal authority, or even a police force 
which could be relied on to regulate the fallen city. Having 
accomplished the work of destruction, the responsibility of recon- 
struction was now imposed upon him; and first among his duties 
was the task of providing for the safety and subordination of that 
slender band which had been so suddenly forced into a vast and 
turbulent capital. 


Notr. We shall record as very interesting historical facts, the numbers with 
which General Scott achieved his victories in the valley. 


Forces. ‘ 
He left Puebla with : ; : . , ; 10,738 rank and file. 
At Contreras and Churubusco, there were. : 8,497 engaged. 
At El Molino del Rey and La Casa Mata, . ; S201 ae 


On 12th and 13th September, at Chapultepec, &c., 7,180 es 


Final attack on city, after deducting killed, wounded, 6.000 
garrison of Mixcoac and Chapultepec, j 


LossgEs. 
At Contreras and Churubusco, 137 killed. 877 wounded. 38 missing. 
At El Molino, &c., Gin ess G65, 3% 18 * 
September 12th, 13th, and 14th, TOR ats HUGE Vs Os 


Grand total of losses, 2,703. 

‘¢On the other hand,” says Scott in his despatch of 18th September, 1847, ‘‘ this 
small force has beaten on the same occasions, in view of the capital, the whole Mexi- 
can army, composed, at the beginning, of thirty odd thousand men, posted always in 
chosen positions, behind entrenchments or more formidable defences of nature and 
art ;— killed or wounded of that number more than 7,000 officers and men, — taken 
3,730 prisoners, one-seventh officers, including 13 generals, of whom 3 had been 
Presidents of this Republic ;— captured more than 20 colors and standards, 75 pieces 
of ordnance, besides 57 wall pieces, 20,000 small arms, and an immense quantity of 
shot, shells and powder.’? See Ex. Doc. No. 1 Senate, 30th Congress, Ist Session, 
p- 384. 


CHAPTER XVI. 
1847—1850. 


ATTACK OF THE CITY MOB ON THE ARMY— QUITMAN GOVERNOR — 
PENA PRESIDENT—CONGRESS ORDERED— SIEGE OF PUEBLA — 
LANE’S, LALLY’S AND CHILDS’S VICTORIES — GUERRILLEROS 
BROKEN UP—MEXICAN POLITICS — ANAYA PRESIDENT — PEACE 
NEGOTIATIONS — SCOTT’S DECREE—PENA PRESIDENT— SANTA 
ANNA AND LANE—SANTA ANNA LEAVES MEXICO FOR JAMAICA — 
TREATY ENTERED INTO—ITS CHARACTER— SANTA CRUZ DE RO- 
SALES — COURT OF INQUIRY — INTERNAL TROUBLES — AMBAS- 
SADORS AT QUERETARO — TREATY RATIFIED — EVACUATION — 


REVOLUTIONARY ATTEMPTS —CONDITION OF MEXICO SINCE THE 
WAR — CHARACTER OF SANTA ANNA—NOTE ON THE MILITARY 


CRITICS. 


ScarceLy had the divisions of the American army, after the 
enthusiastic expression of their joy, begun to disperse from the great 
square of Mexico in search of quarters, when the populace com- 
menced firing upon them from within the deep embrasures of the 
windows and from behind the parapet walls of the house tops. This 
dastardly assault by the mob of a surrendered city lasted for two 
days, until it was terminated by the vigorous military measures of 
General Scott. Yet it is due to the Mexicans to state that this hor- 
rible scheme of assassination was not countenanced by the better 
classes, but that the base outbreak was altogether owing to the lib- 
eration of about two thousand convicts by the flymg government 
on the previous night. These miscreants,—the scum and outcasts 
of Mexico—its common thieves, stabbers and notorious vagrants,— 
banded with nearly an equal number of the disorganized army, had 
already thronged the Palace when Quitman arrived with his di- 
vision, and it was only by the active exertion of Watson’s marines, 
that the vagrant crowd was driven from the edifice. | 

General Quitman was immediately appointed civil and military 
Governor of the conquered capital, and discharged his duties under 
the martial law proclaimed by Scott on the 17th September. The 
general order of the Commander-in-Chief breathes the loftiest spirit 
of self-respect, honor and national consideration. He points out 
clearly the crimes commonly incident to the occupation of subdued 
cities, and gives warning of the severity with which their perpe- 
trators will be punished. He protects the administration of justice 
among the Mexicans in the courts of the country. He places the 


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GREAT SQUARE OF MEXICO. 


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CONGRESS ORDERED — SIEGE OF PUEBLA? 421 


city, its churches, worship, convents, monasteries, inhabitants and 
property, under the special safe-guard of the faith and honor of the 
American army. And finally, instead of demanding, according to 
the custom of many generals in the old world, a splendid ransom 
from the opulent city, he imposed upon it a trifling contribution of 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, —twenty thousand of which 
he devoted to extra comforts for the sick and wounded; ninety 
thousand to purchase blankets and shoes for gratuitous distribution 
among the common soldiers, while but forty thousand were reserved 
for the military chest. This act of clemency and consideration is 
in beautiful contrast with the last malignant spitefulness of the con- 
quered army, whose commander, unable to overthrow the invaders 
in fair combat, had released at midnight, the desperadoes from his 
prisons, with the hope that assassination might do the work which 
military skill and honorable valor had been unable to effect. 

Meanwhile Santa Anna despatched a circular from the town of 
Guadalupe recounting to the Governors of the different States the 
loss of the capital, and, on the 16th, he issued a decree requiring 
Congress to assemble at Querétrao, which was designated as the 
future seat of government. As president and politician, he at once 
saw that he could do nothing more without compromising himself 
still further. Resigning, therefore, the executive chair in favor of 
his constitutional successor, Sefior Pefia-y-Petia, Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court, he despatched General Herrera with four thou- 
sand troops to Querétaro, and departed to assail the Americans in 
Puebla. On the 18th he evacuated Guadalupe, and took the road 
to the eastward, with two thousand cavalry commanded by General 
Alvarez. He knew that the communication with our base of ope- 
rations in that quarter was seriously interrupted if not entirely cut 
off; and he vainly hoped to recover his military préstige by some 
brilliant feat of arms over detached or unequal squadrons. 

When Scott marched into the valley of Mexico, Puebla was left 
in charge of Colonel Childs, with four hundred efficient men and 
nearly eighteen hundred in his hospitals. The watchful commander _ 
and his small band preserved order until the false news of Mexican 
success at Molino del Rey was received. But, at that moment, 
the masses, joined by about three thousand troops under Generai 
Rea, a brave and accomplished Spaniard, rose upon, and besieged 
the slender garrison. On the 22d, Santa Anna arrived, and in- 
creasing the assailants to nearly eight thousand, made the most vigo- 
rous efforts during the six following days and nights to dislodge the 


Americans from the position they had seized. 
54 


422 LANE’S, LALLY’S AND CHILDS’S VICTORIES. 


About the middle of the month, Brigadier General Lane left Vera 
Cruz with a fresh command, and at Jalapa joined the forces of Ma- 
jor Lally, who with nearly a thousand men and a large and valuable 
train, had fought his way thither against Jarauta and his guerrilleros 
at San Juan, Paso de Ovejas, Puente Nacional, Plan del Rio, Cerro- 
Gordo and Los Animas. As soon as the news of Puebla’s danger 
reached these commanders they marched to support the besieged 
band, while Santa Anna believing that Rea could either conquer or 
hold Childs in check until his return, departed in quest of the ad- 
vancing columns of Lane and Lally, who were reported to have con- 
voyed from the coast an immense amount of treasure. The com- 
bined lust of glory and gold perhaps stimulated this last effort of the 
failing chief. Rea continued the siege of Puebla bravely. Santa 
Anna, advancing eastward, and apparently confident of success, es- 
tablished his head-quarters at Huamentala; but whilst manceuvering 
his troops to attack our approaching columns, Lane fell upon him 
suddenly on the 9th of October, and after a sharp action, remained 
victor on the field. On the next day our eager general continued his 
march to Puebla, and entering it on the 13th of October, drove the 
Mexicans from all their positions and effectually relieved the pressed 
but pertinacious commander of the beleagured Americans. 

It was now the turn of those who had been so long assailed to 
become assailants. Rea retired to Atlixco, about twenty-five miles 
from Puebla, but the inexorable Lane immediately followed in his 
steps, and reaching the retreat at sunset on the 19th, by a bright 
moonlight cannonaded the town from the overlooking heights. 
After an hour’s incessant labor, Atlixco surrendered, —the enemy 
fled,— and thus was destroved a nest in which many a guerrillero 
party had been fitted out for the annoyance or destruction of Ameri- 
cans. 

Mexico possesses a wonderful facility in the creation of armies. 
or in the aggregation of men under the name of soldiers. Wher 
ever a standard is raised, it is quickly surrounded by the idlers, the 
thriftless, and the improvident, who are willing, at least, to be sup- 
ported if not munificently recompensed for the task of bearing arms. 
At this period, and notwithstanding all the recent disgraceful and 
disheartening defeats, a large corps had been already gathered in 
different parts of the republic. The recruits were, however, di- 
vided into small, undisciplined, and consequently inefficient bodies. 
It is reported that Lombardini and Reyes were in Querétaro with a 
thousand men; Santa Anna’s command, now turned over to Gen- 
eral Rincon by order of President Petia-y-Pefia, consisted of four 


GUERRILLEROS BROKEN UP-——MEXICAN POLITICS. 423 


thousand; in Tobasco and Chiapas there were two thousand; Urrea, 
Carrabajal and Canales commanded two thousand; Filisola was at 
San Luis Potosi with three thousand; Pefia y Barragan had two 
thousand at Toluca; one thousand were in Oajaca, while nearly 
three thousand guerrilleros harassed the road between Puebla and 
Vera Cruz and rendered it impassable after the victories in the 
valley. The conflict was now almost given up to these miscreants 
under Padre Jarauta and Zenobio, for, in the eastern districts, Gen- 
eral Lane with his ardent partizans held Rincon, Alvarez, and 
Rea in complete check. 

These guerrilla bands had inflicted such injury upon our people 
that it became necessary to destroy them at all hazards. This se- 
vere task was accomplished by Colonel Hughes and Major John R. 
Kenly who commanded at Jalapa, and by General Patterson, 
whose division of four thousand new levies was shortly to be rein- 
forced by General Butler with several thousand more. Patterson 
garrisoned the National Bridge in the midst of these bandit’s 
haunts, and having executed, at Jalapa, two paroled Mexican ofh- 
cers captured in one of the marauding corps, and refused the sur- 
render of Jarauta, he drove that recreant priest from the neighbor- 
hood into the valley of Mexico, in which Lane pursued and de- 
stroyed his re-organized band. 

Whilst these scattered military events were occurring, Pefia-y- 
Pefia, as President of the Republic, had endeavored, both at Toluca 
and at Querétaro, to combine once more the elements of a congress 
and a government. He summoned, moreover, the Governors of 
States to convene and consult upon the condition of affairs; he sus- 
pended Santa Anna; ordered Paredes into nominal arrest at Tololo- 
pan; directed a court martial upon Valencia for his conduct at Con- 
treras; attempted to reform the army, and in all his acts seems to 
have been animated by a sincere spirit of national re-organization 
and peace. Nevertheless, among the deputies who were assembled, 
the same quarrels that disgraced former sessions again arose be- 
tween the Puros, the Moderados, the Monarquistas, and Santan- 
nistas or friends of Santa Anna, who now formed themselves into a 
zealous party, notwithstanding the disgraceful downfall of their 
leader. These contests were continued until early in November, 
when a quorum of the members reached Querétaro and elected 
Sefior Anaya, the former President substitute, to serve until the 
month of January, to which period the counting of votes for the 
Presidency had been postponed, as we have already stated, by the 


424 ANAYA PRESIDENT — PEACE NEGOTIATIONS — SCOTT’S 


intrigdes of Santa Anna. Anaya’s election was a triumph of the 
Moderados. 

Congress broke up after a few day’s session, having provided 
for the assemblage of anew one on the Ist of January, 1848; but, 
unfortunately most of the leaders did not depart from Querétaro 
which was henceforth for many months converted into a political 
battle field for the benefit or disgrace.of the military partizans. 
The Puros, led by Gomez Farias, were joined by the disaffected 
officers of the army ready for revolution, pronunctamientos, or any 
thing that might prolong the war with the same ultimate views that 
animated them during the armistice in August. But Pefia-y-Pefia 
and Anaya were both firm, discreet and consistent in their resis- 
tance. ‘The assembled Governors of States resolved to support 
the President, his opinions, and acts, with their influence and means, 
while the mass of substantial citizens and men of property through- 
out the republic joined in an earnest expression of anxiety for 
peace. Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, and Jalisco, under the lead 
of Santannistas and Puros who mutually hated each other, alone 
continued hostile to a treaty. 

Mr. Trist, soon after the capture of Mexico, had sounded Pefia- 
y-Pefia in relation to the renewal of negotiations ; but it was not until 
the end of October that the prudent President thought himself jus- 
tified in expressing, through his minister, Don Luis de la Rosa, a sim- | 
ple but ardent wish for the cessation of war. When Anaya assumed 
the presidency, a few days afterwards, Penria-y-Penia did not disdain 
to enter his cabinet as minister, and, on the 22d of November, 
offered to our envoy the appointment of commissioners. But in 
the meanwhile our government at home believing that the continu- 
ance of Mr. Trist in Mexico was useless, and probably discontented 
with his conduct, had recalled him from the theatre of action. The 
American commissioner hastened, therefore, to decline the ne- 
gotiation and apprised the Mexicans of his position. But, mature 
reflection upon the political state of Mexico, as well as upon the 
real desires of his government and people, induced Mr. Trist to 
change his views, and accordingly he notified the Mexican cabinet 
that, in spite of his recall, he would assume the responsibility of a 
final effort to close the war. Good judgment at the moment, and 
subsequent events, fully justified our envoy’s diplomatic resolve. 
Commissioners were at once appointed to meet him, and negotia- 
tions were speedily commenced in a spirit of sincerity and peace. 
General Scott, nevertheless, though equally anxious to terminate 
the conflict. did not for a moment intermit his military vigilance. 


DECREE—PENA PRESIDENT—SANTA ANNA AND LANE. 425 


The capital, and the captured towns were still as strictly governed ; 
the growing army was organized for future operations, and a gen- 
eral order was issued demanding a large contribution from each of 
the states for the support of our army. This military decree, more- 
over, reformed and essentially changed the duties, taxation, collec- 
tion and assaying of the nation; it indicated the intention of our 
government to spread its troops all over the land; and while it re- 
asserted the supremacy of law, and the purity of its administration, 
it announced instant death, by sentence of a drum-head court-mar- 
tial, to all who engaged in irregular war. This decree satisfied re- 
flecting Mexicans, who noticed the steady earnestness and increase 
of our army, that their nationality was seriously endangered, and 
greatly aided, as doubtless it was designed to do, in stimulating the 
action of the cabinet and commissioners. 

Thus closed the eventful year of 1847. On the Ist of January, 
1848, only thirty deputies of the new congress appeared in their 
places; and on the 8th,—the day for the decision of the presi- 
dency, —as there was still no quorum in attendance, and Anaya’s 
term had expired, he promptly resigned his power to his minister of 
foreign affairs, Petia-y-Pefa, who re-assumed the executive chair, 
as he formerly had done, by virtue of his constitutional right as 
chief justice. Anaya at once came into his cabinet as minister of 
war, while De la Rosa took the port-folio of foreign relations. All 
these persons were still sincere coadjutors in the work of peace. 


The destiny of Santa Anna was drawing to a close. Huamantla 
had been perhaps his last battle field in Mexico. About the middle 
of January General Lane received information of the lurking place 
of the chieftain, who now, with scarcely the shadow of his ancient 
power or influence, was concealed at Tehuacan in the neighborhood 
of Puebla. The astute intriguer’s admission into the Republic had 
once been considered a master stroke of American policy; but his 
death, capture, or expulsion, was now equally desired by those who 
had watched him more closely and knew him better. Lane, ac- 
cordingly, with a band of about three hundred and fifty mounted 
men, undertook the delicate task of seizing Santa Anna and had 
he not received timely warning, notwithstanding the secrecy of the 
American’s movements, it is scarcely probable that he would have 
quitted his retreat alive. Among the corps of partizan warriors 
who went in search of the fugitive there were many Texans who 
still smarted under the memory of the dreary march from Santa Fé 
in 1841, the decimation at Mier, the cruelties of Goliad and the 


426 SANTA ANNA LEAVES MEXICO FOR JAMAICA. 


Alamo; and the imprisonments in Mexico, Puebla, or Peroté in 
1842. But when Lane and his troopers reached Tehuacan, the 
game had escaped, though his lair was still warm. All the per- 
sonal effects left behind in his rapid flight, were plundered, with the 
exception of his wife’s wardrobe, which, with a rough though chiy- 
alrous gallantry, was sent to the beautiful but ill matched lady. A 
picked military escort, personally attached and doubtless well paid, 
still attended him. But, beyond this, he had no military command, 
and as a soldier and politician, his power in Mexico had departed. 

Having sought by public letters to throw, as usual, the disgrace 
of his defeats at Belen and Chapultepec, upon General Terres and 
the revolutionary hero Bravo, he aroused the united hatred of these 
men and the disgust of their numerous friends. Public opinion 
openly condemned him every where. After Lane’s assault he took 
refuge in Oajaca; but the people of that region were equally inimi- 
cal and significantly desired his departure. Thus, broken in fame 
and character, deprived of a party, personal influence, patronage, 
and present use of his wealth, the foiled Warrior-President stood 
fora moment at bay. But his resolution was soon taken. From 
Cascatlan he wrote to the minister of war on the Ist of February, 
demanding passports, and at the same time he intimated to the 
American Commander-in-chief his willingness to leave an ungrate- 
ful Republic and to “‘seek an asylum on a foreign soil where he 
might pass his last days in that tranquillity which he could never 
find in the land of his birth.”” ‘The desired passports were granted. 
He was assured that neither Mexicans nor Americans would molest 
his departure; and, moving leisurely towards the eastern coast with 
his family, he was met near his Hacienda of Encero by a select 
guard, detailed by Colonel Hughes and Major Kenly, and, escorted 
with his long train of troopers, domestics, treasure and luggage to 
La Antigua, where he embarked on the 5th of April, 1848, on 
board a Spanish brig bound to Jamaica. One year and eight 
months before, returning from exile, he had landed from the steamer 
Arab in the same neighborhood, to regenerate his country ! ! 


1Tn his letter to the Secretary of War on the Ist of February from Cascatlan, he 
says: ‘to enable me to live out of the way of the banditti travelling about here in 
large parties, I have had to spend more than two thousand dollars, necessary to 
maintain a small escort, when, through the scarcity of means in the treasury, I 
served my country without pay.’’ ‘This is a singular illustration of Santa Anna’s char- 
acteristic avarice. Perhaps no man ever served his country for more liberal and cer- 
tain pay than this chieftain. We have been informed by one of our highest officers, 
who was in the capital after its occupation by our troops, and had access to the Mexi- 
can archives, that, amid all Santa Anna’s political and military distresses he never 


TREATY ENTERED INTO—ITS CHARACTER. AQT 


But before his departure probably forever from Mexico, Santa 
Anna had been doomed to see the peace concluded. The complete 
failure of the Mexicans in all their battles, notwithstanding the 
courage with which they individually fought at Churubusco, Cha- 
pultepec, and Molino del Rey, impressed the nation deeply with 
the conviction of its inability to cope in arms with the United 
States. The discomfiture of Paredes, the want of pecuniary re- 
sources, the disorganization of the country, the growing strength 
of the Americans who were pouring into the capital under Patter- 
son, Butler and Marshall, and the utter failure of the arch-in- 
triguer,—all contributed to strengthen the arm of the executive 
and to authorize both the negotiation of a treaty and the arrange- 
ment of an armistice until the two governments should ratify the 
terms of peace. Mr. Nicholas P. Trist, Don Luis G. Cuevas, Don 
Bernardo Couto, and Don Miguel Atristain, signed the treaty, thus 
consummated, on the 2d of February, 1848, at the town of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo. Its chief terms were Ist, the re-establishment of 
peace; 2d, the boundary which confirmed the southern line of 
Texas and gave us New Mexico and Upper California; 3d, the 
payment of fifteen millions by the United States, in consideration 
of the extension of our boundaries; 4th, the payment by our gov- 
ernment of all the claims of its citizens against the Mexican Re- 
public to the extent of three and a quarter millions, so as to dis- 
charge Mexico forever from all responsibility; 5th, a compact to 
restrain the incursions and misconduct of the Indians on the north- 
ern frontier. ‘The compact contained in all, thirty-three articles 
and a secret article prolonging the period of ratification in Wash- 
ington beyond the four months from its date as stipulated in the 
original instrument. 

This important treaty, which, we believe, history will justly char- 
acterise as one of the most liberal ever assented to by the conquer- 
ors of so great a country, was despatched immediately by an in- 
telligent courier to Washington; and, notwithstanding the irregu- 
larity of its negotiation after Mr. Trist’s recall, was at once sent to 
the Senate by President Polk. In that illustrious body of statesmen 
it was fully debated, and after mature consideration, ratified, with 
but slight change, on the 10th of March. Senator Sevier and Mr. 
Attorney General Clifford, resigned their posts and were sent as 
forgot his pecuniary interests. The books of the treasury showed that, at the mo- 
ment when the city was about to fall and when there was scarcely money enough to 
maintain the troops, he paid himself the whole of his salary as President up to that date, 


and all the arrears which he claimed as due to him, as President also, during the period of 
his residence in exile at Havana ! 


428 SANTA CRUZ DE ROSALES—COURT OF INQUIRY. 


Plenipotentiaries to Mexico to secure its passage by the Mexican 
congress. 

Meanwhile the last action of the war was fought and won on the 
16th of March, in ignorance of the armistice, by General Price at 
Santa Cruz de Rosales, near Chihuahua; and the diplomatic and 
military career of two of our most distinguished citizens was ab- 
ruptly closed on the theatre of their brilliant achievements. Scott, 
the victor of so many splendid fields, was suspended from the 


~~ command of the army he had led to glory, and General William 


O. Butler was ordered to replace him. Hot dissensions had oc- 
curred between the Commander-in-chief, Worth, Pillow, and other 
meritorious officers, and although our government might well have 
avoided a scandalous rupture at such a moment in an enemy’s capi- 
tal, a Court of Inquiry was, nevertheless, convened to discuss the 
battles and the men who had achieved the victories! Nor was Mr. 
Trist, the steadfast, persevering and successful friend of peace, 
spared when he had accomplished all that his government and coun- 


trymen desired. Learned in the language of Spain; intimate with | 


the character of the people; familiar, by long residence, with their 
tastes, feelings and customs, he had been selected by our Secretary 
of State in consequence of his peculiar fitness for the mission and 
its delicate diplomacy. Yet he was not allowed the honor of finish- 
ing his formal task at Querétaro but was ordered home almost in 
disgrace. History, however, will render the justice that poli- 


ticians and governments deny, and must honestly recognize the 


treaty which crowned and closed the war as emphatically the result 
of his skill and watchfulness. The fate of the four most eminent 
men in this war illustrates a painful passage in the story of our 
country, for whilst Frémont, the pacificator of the west, was 
brought home a prisoner, and Taylor converted into a barrack 
master at Monterey, — Scott was almost tried for his victories in the 
presence of his conquered foes, and Trist disgraced for the treaty 
he had been sent to negotiate! But the private or public griefs of 
our commanders and diplomatists should properly find no place in 
these brief historical sketches, nor must we dwell upon them, even 
in passing. The great victors and the able negotiators are secure 
in the memory and gratitude of the future. 

While the court of inquiry pursued its investigations in the capi- 
tal, and the United States Senate, at home, was engaged in rati- 
fying the treaty, President Pefia-y-Pefia and his cabinet still labored 
zealously to assemble a Congress at Querétaro. The Mexican Pre- 
sident resolved, if necessary to obtain a quorum, to exclude New 


ol 
4 
“4 

‘. 
a 
P 
ar 


INTERNAL TROUBLES—AMBASSADORS AT QUERETARO. 429 


Mexico, California, and Yucatan from representation; the two first 
being in possession of the United States and the latter in revolt. 
The disturbance in Yucatan which had been for some time ferment- 
ing, broke out fiercely in July, 1847, and became, in fact, a long 
continued war of castes. The Indian peones and rancheros, under 
their leaders Pat and Chi, carried fire and sword among the thinly 
scattered whites, until relief was afforded them by Commodore 
Perry, the Havanese, the English of Jamaica and some enlisted 
corps of American volunteers returning from the war. About Tus- 
pan and Tampico on the east coast, — in the interior State of Gua- 
najuato, — and on the northern frontiers of Sonora, Durango, and 
San Luis, the wild Indians, and the semi-civilized Indian laborers 
were rebellious and extremely annoying to the lonely settlers. 
There were symptoms everywhere, not only of national disorgani- 
zation, but almost of national dissolution. Yet, difficult as was the 
position of the government, amid all these foreign and domestic 
dangers, every member strove loyally to sustain the nation and its 
character until the return of the ratified treaty. Money was con- 
tributed freely by the friends of peace, who sought a renewal of 
trade and desired to see the labors of the mines and of agriculture 
again pursuing their wonted channels. The clergy, too, who 
feared national ruin, annexation, or complete conquest, grudgingly 
bestowed a portion of their treasures; and thus the members of 
Congress were supplied with means to assemble at the seat of 
government. 

On the 25th May, a brilliant cortége of American cavalry was 
seen winding along the hills towards Querétaro as the escort of the 
American commissioners, who were welcomed to the seat of gov- 
ernment by the national authorities, and entertained sumptuously in 
an edifice set apart for their accommodation. The town was wild 
with rejoicing. Those who had been so recently regarded as bit- 
ter foes, were hailed with all the ardor of ancient, and uninterrupted 
friendship. No one would have imagined that war had ever been 
waged between the soldiers of the north and south who now shared 
the same barracks and pledged each other in their social cups. If 
the drama was prepared for the occasion by the government, it was 
certainly well played, and unquestionably diverted the minds of the 
turbulent and dangerous classes of the capital at a moment when 
good feeling was most needed. 

Congress was in session when our commissioners arrived, and 
on the same day the Senate ratified the treaty, which, after a 


stormy debate, had been previously sanctioned by the Chamber of 
5d 


430 TREATY RATIFIED —- EVACUATION — REVOLUTIONARY 


Deputies. On the 30th of May the ratifications were finally ex- 
changed, and the first imstalment of indemnity being paid in the 
city of Mexico, our troops evacuated the country in the most or- 
derly manner during the following summer. 


It cannot be denied that the Mexican Government, whose tenure 
of power was so frail, almost trembled at the sudden withdrawal of 
our forces and the full restoration of a power for which, as patriots, 
they naturally craved. The sudden relaxation of a firm and dread- 


ed military authority in the capital, amid all those classes of in- — 


triguing politicians, soldiers, clergymen, and demagogues, who had 


so long disturbed the nation’s peace before Scott’s capture of Mex- — 
5 p p 


ico, naturally alarmed the president and cabinet, who possessed no 
reliable army to replace the departing Americans. But the three 
millions, received opportunely for indemnity, were no doubt judi- 
ciously used by the authorities, while the men of property and 
opulent merchants leagued zealously with the municipal authorities 


to preserve order until national reorganization might begin. One 


of the first steps in this scheme was the election by Congress of 
General Herrera, —a hero of revolutionary fame,—as Constitu- 
tional President, and of Pefia-y-Pefia as Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court. These and other conciliatory but firm acts gave 
peace at least for the moment to the heart of the nation; but be- 
yond the capital all the bonds of the Federal Union were totally 
relaxed. Scarcely had the National Government been reinstalled 
in the city of Mexico, when General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga 
unfurled the standard of rebellion in Guanajuato, under the pretext 
of opposing the treaty. The administration, possessing only the 
skeleton of an army, did not halt to consider the smallness of its 
resources, but promptly placed all its disposable men under the 
command of Anastasio Bustamante, who with Mifion, Cortazar, 
and Lombardini, not only put down the revolution of Paredes, but, 


by their influence and admirable conduct imposed order and in-. 


spired renewed hopes for the future wherever they appeared. In 
the same way the strong arm of power was honestly used to destroy 
tional Guard of the Federal District faithfully performed its duty in 
this patriotic task. Paredes disappeared after his fall in Guanaju- 
ato, and remained in concealment or obscurity until his death. 

Various outbreaks occurred in Mazatlan, on the western coast; 
in the State of Tobasco; in Chiapas, and among the Indians of 
Puebla; in the Huasteca of the State of Mexico; and in the 


. . — 
i so sila: ea aaa : . 
> aes — SS ee a oe iL 


faction wherever it dared to lift its turbulent head, —and the Na- 


5 ae oe = —" 
Sa 3 ys TE aie o05 Sin i ete Bi fess 


- 
s Nae eas SFE ey = ae. 
a ta he EDS = ates? 


ATTEMPTS — CONDITION OF MEXICO SINCE THE War. 431 


Sierra Gorda belonging to the States of Querétaro, San Luis, and 
Guanajuato. These, like the revolt in Yucatan, threatened a war 
of castes, but the energetic government found means to subdue the 
rebels, and to reduce their districts to order. 


Thus, for more than two years, has the government of President 
Herrera maintamed its respectability and authority in spite of a 
failing treasury, political factionists, and domestic rebellion. The 
attempted task of national reorganization has been honestly and 
firmly, if not successfully carried out. The army, that canker of 
the nation, has been nearly destroyed, and its idle officers and men 
discharged to earn their living by honest labor. A great change 
has passed over Mexico. Santa Anna lives abroad in almost com- 
pulsory exile. Canalizo and Paredes are dead. Bustamante, 
without political strength or party, retains a military command. 
The force in garrison does not amount to more, probably, than five 
or six thousand. The prestige of the army was blurred and 
blighted by the war. Nearly all the old political managers and in- 
triguers are gradually passing from the stage, and, with the new 
men coming upon il, to whom the war has taught terrible but salu- 
tary lessons, we may hope that another era of civilization and pro- 
gress is about to dawn upon this great country. This hope 
is founded on the establishment of order and official responsibility 
by a strong government which will neither degenerate into despot- 
ism nor become corrupt by the uninterrupted enjoyment of power. 
The true value of the representative system will thus become ra- 
pidly known to Mexico as she develops her resources, by the 
united, constitutional, and peaceful movement of her state and 
national machinery. 


Among all the agitators of the country no one has been, by turns, 
so much courted and dreaded as Santa Anna. His political history, 
sketched in this volume, discloses many but not all the features of 
his private character. He possessed a wilful, observant, patient 
intellect, which had received very little culture ; but constant inter- 
course with all classes of men, made him perfectly familiar with 
the strength and weaknesses of his countrymen. ‘There was nota 
person of note in the Republic whose value he did not know, nor 
was there a venal politician with whose price he was unacquainted. 
Believing most men corrupt or corruptible, he was constantly busy 
in contriving expedients to control or win them. A soldier almost 
from his infancy, during turbulent times among semi-civilized troops, 


432 CHARACTER OF SANTA ANNA. 


he had become so habitually despotic that when he left the camp 
for the cabinet he still blent the imperious General with the intriguing 
President. He seemed to cherish the idea that his country could 
not be virtuously governed. Ambitious, and avaricious, he sought 
for power not only to gratify his individual lust of personal glory, 
but as a means of enriching himself and purchasing the instruments 
who might sustain his authority. Accordingly, he rarely distin- 
guished the public treasure from his private funds. Soldier as he 
was by profession, he was slightly skilled in the duties of a com- 
mander in the field, and never won a great battle except through 
the blunders of his opponents. He was a systematic revolutionist; 
a manager of men; an astute intriguer ;—and, personally timid, he 
seldom meditated an advance without planning a retreat. Covetous 
as a miser, he nevertheless, delighted to watch the mean combat 
between fowls upon whose prowess he had staked his thousands. 
An agriculturist with vast landed possessions, his chief rural plea- 
sure was in training these birds for the brutal battle of the pit. 
Loving money insatiably, he leaned with the eagerness of a gam- 
bler over the table where those who knew how to propitiate his 
ereediness learned the graceful art of losing judiciously. Sensual 


by constitution, he valued woman only as the minister of his plea- — 


sures. The gentlest being imaginable in tone, address, and de- 
meanor to foreigners or his equals, he was oppressively haughty to 
his inferiors, unless they were necessary to his purposes or not ab- 
solutely in his power. The correspondence and public papers 
which were either written or dictated by him, fully displayed the 
sophistry by which he changed defeats into victories or converted 
criminal faults into philanthropy. Gifted with an extraordinary 
power of expression, he used his splendid language to impose by 
sonorous periods, upon the credulity or fancy of his people. No 
one excelled him in ingenuity, eloquence, bombast, gasconade or 
dialectic skill. When at the head of power, he lived constantly in 
a gorgeous military pageant; and, a perfect master of dramatic 
effect upon the excitable masses of his countrymen, he forgot the 
exhumation of the dishonored bones of Cortéz to superintend the 
majestic interment of the limb he had lost at Vera Cruz.} 

It will easily be understood how such a man, in the revolutionary 
times of Mexico, became neither the Cromwell nor the Washington 
of his country. The great talent which he unquestionably pos- 
sessed, taught him that it was easier to deal corruptly with corrup- 
tions than to rise to the dignity of a loyal reformer. He and his 


1 See page 91, vol. 1, and Mexico as it was and as it is, p 207. 


A TRA i a 
“ae - 
hls ada Sa eles a 
oe - 
R 
ol : 
. 


NOTE ON THE MILITARY CRITICS. 433 


country mutually acted, and reacted upon each other. Neither a 
student nor a traveller, he knew nothing of human character except 
as he saw it exhibited at home, and there he certainly sometimes 
found excuses for severity and even despotism. It is undeniable 
that he was endowed with a peculiar genius, but it was that kind 
of energetic genius which may raise a dexterous man from disgrace, 
defeat or reverses, rather than sustain him in power when he has 
reached it. He never was popular or relied for success on the demo- 
cratic sentiment of his country. He ascertained, at an early day, 
that the people would not favor his aspirations, and, abandoning fed- 
eralism, he threw himself in the embrace of the centralists. The army 
and the church-establishment, — combined for mutual protection 
under his auspices, —were the only two elements of his political 
strength; and as long as he wielded their mingled power, he was en- 
abled to do more than any other Mexican in thoroughly demoralizing 
his country. Asa military demagogue he was often valuable even to 
honest patriots who were willing to call him to power for a moment 
to save the country either from anarchy or from the grasp of more 
dangerous aspirants. Until the army was destroyed, Santa Anna 
could not fall, nor would the military politicians yield to the civil. 
‘As long as this dangerous chief and his myrmidons remained in 
Mexico, either in or out of power, every citizen felt that he was 
suffering under the rod of a Despot or that the progress of his 
country would soon be paralyzed by the wand of an unprincipled 
Agitator. But with the army reduced to the mere requirements of 
a police system, and Santa Anna beyond the limits of the Republic, 
the nation may breathe with freedom and vigor.! 


' See vol. 2, chapter xii, p. 155. Reflections upon the Republic. 


a 

Nore. These historical sketches of the late war with Mexico are designed to pre- 
sent a rapid view of the chief events and motives of the international conflict rather 
than to portray the separate actions of civil and military men who were engaged in 
it. We have, therefore, not been as minute as might be desired either by ourself or 
by interested individuals. This, however, will be remedied in the general ‘‘ His- 
tory of the War between Mexico and the United States,’? which we design 
publishing. 

In narrating the battles we have sketched them according to the published plans of 
the commanders on both sides. ‘This is the fair system of describing and judging ; but 
whether those plans were always the most judicious, is a matter for military criticism 
in which we have not present space to indulge. Resaca dela Palma, Monterey, 
Buena Vista, Vera Cruz, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the time as well as the 
mode of capturing the capital, have all been discussed and condemned by the prolific 
class of fault finders —most of whose judgments, when at all correct, are founded 
upon knowledge acquired or assured subsequently to the actions, and which was en- 
tirely inaccessible to the commanders when they fought the battles that are criticised. 
One thing, however, should gratify our Generals exceedingly, and it is that in truth 
they did fight and win the several actions in question, notwithstanding their blunders 
and notwithstanding the fact that their junior civil and military critics could have 
fought them so much better! They had, it seems, a double triumph — one over 
their own stupid ignorance and another over the enemy! 


OLAS A wh cukiah Se » * 
Oe ieee tee, 
fs reaver) + 
tps + oF 


MEXICO; 


AZTEC, SPANISH AND REPUBLICAN: 


A HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND SOCIAL 
ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY FROM THE PERIOD OF THE INVASION 
BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME; 

WITH A VIEW OF THE 


PPh 


ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE AND CIVILIZATION 5 


A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE WAR; 


‘ Beas 
s Me 
ny ee ae es ie 


ay , 
P eee OF 
“ ! "i 


NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA. 


Sing. iy 
bd i Li % 
Ral a A 

“er at 
ee BY he 
a 


Were 


ANTZ MAYER, 


is ar ai 
LY SECRETARY OF LEGATION TO MEXICO. ah 


3 
Bs 
rk . 
See 
a i 
Pa) thoes: 
> =i 


IN TWO VOLUMES. 


VOLUME II. 


HARTFORD: 
S. DRAKE AND COMPANY. 


MDCCCLI.. 


ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 


SIDNEY DRAKE, 


2 In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 


‘i 5, A. ALVORD, PRINTER 
Be ‘ | | 99 Gold-st.. N.¥. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK IV. 


CHAPTER I.—Absence of accuracy—Humboldt—Superficial extent of Mexican 
Territory—Physical structure of Mexico—Volcanic mountains—Climates—Tierras 
Templadas, Calientes, Frias—Political divisions and boundaries of Mexico—Old 
Spanish divisions—Provinces—Intendencies—States—Departments—N orth boun- 
dary—Present States and Territories—Rivers of Mexico—Rivers and Lakes of 
Mexico, . ; , : 4 : . Page 9 


CHAPTER II.—Division of hacen! “W tivGel Thalia nese tte eee 
Rancheros—Characteristics, Indifference, Procrastination—Females—-Better Classes 
—Their social habits—Entertainments—Leperos—Their habits—Evangelistas— 
Thieving—The Ranchero—His character and habits—The Indian race—Agricul- 
turists—Traditionary habits adhered to—Improvidence—Superstition—Drunken- 
ness—Indian women—Servile condition—Local adhesiveness—Peonage— Whip- 
ping—Planter-life—Its solitude and results—Miilenpfordt’s character of the In- 
dians—Indian tribes and races in Mexico—Table of castes in Mexico, . Lee 


CHAPTER III.—Population—Census-—Tables of population—Relative division of 
races—Relative eaualeigac cultivation—Relative ee in hot and cold 
districts, : : : : ‘ F : ‘ : : wer All 


CHAPTER IV. by cutie and rainy iiaphobattees cudieweds of corn 
lands—Colonial restrictions—Colonial dependence—Bad intercommunication—Ar- 
rieros—Corn lands—Different kinds of corn in Mexico—Mode of cultivation— 
Production—various uses of corn—Banana—Mainoc—Rice—The olive—Vine— 
Chile eee ey ee ee estates—Making es 
Aloes—Cacti, : : : . 48 


CHAPTER V.—Estates in the fale of Cuernavaca and Cuautla—Mexican haci- 
endas—Sugar regions—Coffee—Its yield—Tobacco—Orizaba—Chiapas, etc.—In- 
digo—Cotton—Manufactures encouraged in Mexico—No new agricultural popula- 
tion—New manufacturing population—Production of cotton—Vainilla—Jalap— 
Cacao—Cochineal—Its production and a” So are er aaa pros- 
pects—Grazing, and not an agricultural country, . : - 62 


CHAPTER VI.—Reflections on emigration—Advantages of America—Land and 
labor—Mines wrought by Aztecs—Mining districts and extent in Mexico—Errors 
as to early supply of metals from America—True period of abundance—Mines 
not exhausted—Condition—Families enriched—Effect of mining on Agriculture— 
Relative product of silver for ten years—Table of product—Yield of the mines 
since the Conquest—Coinage in 1844—Total coinage 1535 to 1850, : = 6 


CHAPTER VII.—Income of New Spain 1809—Expenses of New Spain 1809— 
Mineral productions—Military force—Agriculture—Manufactures—Commerce— 
Exports—Imports—Present commerce—Imports—Exports—Nineteen years trade 
between the United States and Mexico—Character of imports—Character of ex- 
ports—Silver exported—Fairs in Mexico—The future prospects and position of 
Mexico—Not a commercial country—Railway from Vera Cruz to the city of 
MVLEXICO, 0 3 ; 3 4 P ; é ? % : j : AS fs 


4 CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER VIII.—Disorder of Mexican finances—Enormous usury—Character of 
financial operations—Expenses of administrations—Analysis of Mexican debt— 
Comparison of income and outlay—Deficit, . 5 5 : é : « 207 


CHAPTER IX.—Table of cotton factories in Mexico—Consumption—Produc- 
tion—Increase of factories—Day and night work—Deficit of material—Water and 
steam power—Mexican manufactures generally, . A ; ‘ 4 a) ae 


CHAPTER X.—The military in Mexico before and after the revolution—Confirma- 
tion of army—lIts political use—Character of Mexican soldiers—Recruiting— 
Tactics—Officers—Dramatic character of army—Recriminations—Condition of the 
army at the peace—Army on the northern frontier—Military colonies—Character 
of the tribes—Fortresses—Perote—Acapulco—San Juan de Ulua—Reorganization 
of the army—Tabular view of men and Materiel—Navy—Extent of coast on both 
seas—Naval establishment—Vessels and officers—Expenses of war and navy, 116 


CHAPTER XI.—Relations between the Mexican church and the Pope—Clergy— 
Monks—Nuns—Monasteries—Convents— Wealth of the church—Ratio of clergy 
and people—High and low clergy—their history—vices--Monks—Rural clergy— 
Their character—Conduct of clergy, public and private—Missions in California— 
Mode of conversion—Monks in Mexico—Zavala’s strictures—Pazo’s strictures on 
South American clergy—Church in the United States and in Mexico—Constitu- 
tional protection of Catholicism—Duty of the church—Bulls—Paper money, 130 


CHAPTER XII.—Various changes of the Mexican constitution—Present organiza- 
tion of the national and state governments—Constitution of 1847—Legislative and 
judiciary—National and state—Judiciary—Administration of justice—Civil and 
criminal process—Mal-administration of justice—Prisons—Crime—Accordada— 
Condition of prisons—Statistics of crime in the capital—Garrotte—Mexican 
opinions, ; : ; : : : : : 2 : . 144 


CHAPTER XIII.—What Mexico has done—Review of her conduct and character 
—Mexican opinions—Classes—Indians—Mestizos— W hites—Army—Church— 
Divisions of whites—want of Homogeneousness—Want of nationality and of a 
people—Remedies—Emigration—Religious liberty—political order—Labor, 155 


BOOK V. 


CHAPTER I.—Division of Mexico into States—Eastern, western, interior—Yuca- 
tan—Boundaries, departments, population, districts, towns, parishes, productions, 
principal towns, islands, harbors—Chiapas—Boundaries, products, departments, 
towns, rivers, population—Remains in Yucatan and Chiapas—Discoveries of Ste- 
phens, Catherwood, Norman, etc.—Palenque—Uxmal—Yucatan calendar—Yuca- 
tan, Chiapan, Mechoacan, Nicaragua and Mexican months—Yucatese and Chia- 
pan cycle—Yucatese and Mexican solar year-—Differences—Yucatese months— 
Tabasco—Boundaries, rivers, lagune, inhabitants, productions, towns and villages, 

Page 165 


CHAPTER II.—Boundaries of Vera Cruz—Rivers, lagunes, mineral springs, pop- 
ulation, political divisions, productions, cattle, cities, towns—Vera Cruz—lIts dis- 
eases—Meteorological observations at—Water fallen at Vera Cruz—Orizaba—As- 
cent of the mountain—Magnificent views—Difficulties—The crater extinct— 
Elevation of the mountain—Descent—Antiquities in the state of Vera Cruz— 
Ruins at Panuco, Chacuaco, San Nicolas, La Trinidad—Small figures—Papantla 
—Description of the pyramid—Ruins at Mapilca—Pyramid and temple at ‘Tusa- 
pan—lsle of Sacrificios—Misantla—Remains near Puente Nacional—Tamaulipas— 
Boundaries, rivers, lagunes, climate, population, productions, towns—Antiquities 
of ‘Tamaulipas—Topila—Rancho de las piedras—Sculpture—Remains, ete., ete. 

Page 183 


CONTENTS. 5 


CHAPTER III.—Oajaca—Extent, Boundaries, Geology, Valley, Indians, Depart- 
. ments, Population, Mines, Ports, Productions, Cattle, Towns, Ancient remains— 
Mitla—The palace—Tom}l)s—A ntiquarian speculations—connection of Mexican re- 
mains—Quiotepec, or Cerro de las Juntas, . : : é ; ; . , 210 


CHAPTER IV.—Puebla—Divisions, productions, factories—River—Streams—Pu- 
ebla de los Angeles—Cathedral—Towns—Mines—Quarries—M ountains—Popo- 
catepetl—A tlixco—Olivares—Ascent of the mountain—The crater—Elevation— 
Pyramid of Cholula—Visit to the pyramid—Correct dimensions—Territory of 
Tlascala—History—Position—Size—Productions—Towns, . 5 : . 220 


CHAPTER V.—State of Mexico—Area, Divisions, Population, Federal district, 
Valley, Highways, Lakes—Zumpango—Cristovol—Chalco—Xochimilco—Tezco- 
co—Salt-works—Cities—San Augustin—Festival—Tezcoco, Tacuba, Toluca—Cas- 
cade of Regla—Towns—Valley of Cuernavaca—Acapantzingo—Its Indian isola- 
tion—Mines in the state, i ; : : ; j ‘ : 5 > 4233 


CHAPTER VI.—Description of the city of Mexico—Cathedral—lIts architecture 
and riches—The Palace, University, Market, Chamber of Deputies, etc.—Portales 
—Mineria—La Merced—San Domingo—Characters and costumes—Paseos—Ala- 
meda—Aqueducts—Passeo Nuevo and de la Viga—Alameda—Description of it— 
Life in Mexico—Theatres—Opera—Domestic life—Genuine but cautious hospi- 
tality—Legend of the virgin of Guadalupe, . : . 5 : : . 244 


CHAPTER VII.—Antiquities in the museum—Statue of Charles [V.—Condition 
of the museum—Feathered serpents—Vieeroy’s portraits—Cortéz—Portrait—Ar- 
mor—Pedro de Alvarado—Images—Vases—T ezcoco—Palace—Trough—Massive 
mounds—Tescocingo—Hill—Its ancient adornments—Ancient bellevue and res- 
ervoir—Tezcocan splendor—Bosque del Contador—Ponds—Lakes—Arbors—Py- 
ramids of Teotihuacan—Houses of sun and moon—Path of the dead—Carved 
pillar—Pillar at Otumba—Pyramid of Xochicaleo—Hill of Xochicaleco—Its struc- 
PUNES,.-¢. : ; : - Sidohee j : ‘ : Oo 


CHAPTER VIII.—State of Mechoacan—Boundaries—Elevations—Volcano of Jo- 
rullo—Theories of Humboldt and Lyell—Present condition—Rivers of Mechoa- 
can—Climate, Health, Indians, Departments, Agriculture, Towns, Mines—Jalisco 
—Boundaries, Population, Rivers, Lakes, Divisions, Manufactures, Agriculture, 
Factories—Guadalajara—Towns—San Juan de los Lagos—Tepic—San Blas— 
Mines, Islands, Mining region, Indians, Character and Habits, Church and 
School, Education, Bishopric—Territory of Colima—Extent, Climate, Produc- 
tions, Towns, : ; : ? ; , : 5 : ; : - 286 


CHAPTER IX.—Sinaloa—Boundaries, Climate, Divisions, Indians, Products, 
~ Towns, Mines—Sonora—Boundaries, Divisions, Rivers, Climate, Indians, Trade, 
Towns, Mines—Territory of Lower California—Boundaries, Character, Popula- 
tion, Products, Pearls, Salt, Mines, Seals, Whales, Climate, Ports, towns, Popu- 
lation—State of Guerrero, . ; : ‘ A é ‘ : : . | 298 


CHAPTER X.—State of Querétaro—Boundaries, Divisions, Characteristics, 
Rivers, Population and climate, Districts, etc., Agricultural products, Forests, 
Factories, Cities, Mines—State of Guanajuato—Boundaries, Extent, Soil—Lake 
Yurirapundaro—Climate, Effect of maladies—Productions, Vine, Olive—Divisions 
—Population—City of Guanajuato—Towns in the state—Hacienda of Jaral— 
Mines—Silver, Copper, Lead, Cinnabar—Zacatécas—Boundaries, Extent, Agricul- 
ture, Divisions, Population, Towns—Zacatécas—Aguas Calientes, etc.—Product 
and value of Zacatécan mines—Ruins of Quemada in Zacatécas, é . 306 


CHAPTER XI.—State of San Luis Potosi—Boundaries, Lakes, Rivers, Climate, 
Departments, Products—San Luis—Towns—Mining region—New Leon—Boun- 
daries, Character, Rivers, Climate, Departments—Agriculture—Grazing, etc.— 


6 CONTENTS. 


Monterey—Coahuila—Boundary, Position, Climate, Productions, Towns—State 
of Durango—Boundary, Character, Divisions, Streams; Productions—City of Du- 
rango—Towns, Mines, Iron, Silver—Indian necrology—Cave burial, . . 324 


CHAPTER XII.—State of Chihuahua—Position, Boundaries, Extent, Character- 
istics, Rivers, Lakes, Indians, Divisions, Climate, Productions—Cattle estates— 
Mint—Mines—Principal towns—Chihuahua—E] Paso del Norte—Military impor- 
tance—E] Paso wine, etc.—Antiquities—Indian ravages—The Bolson de Mapimi 
—Mexican modes of travelling and transportation—Litera—Mules—Arrieros— 
Conducta—Coaches—Freight wagons—Mexican habit of Home-staying—want of 
exploration—Modern advancement, . : : 5 : : ‘ - 334 


Aprenpix No. 1—Profile of the Plateau—Mexico to Santa Fé—Santa Fé to the 
Gulf... ; ; ‘ : Z : : d . F i y #346 


Appenpix No. 2—Mexican Coins, Weights and Measures, . ; : - 347 


BOOK VI. 


TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO.—Exploration of the far west—Loneg, Nicol- 
let, Frémont—Santa Fé trade—First adventurers—Caravans—New Mexico erected 
by Congress into a territory—Geological structure of New Mexico—The Rio 
Grande—Its value—Soil—Pr oducts—Irrigation—Cattle—Indians—Mines—Gold— 
Silver—Copper—lIron—Gypsum—Salt—Climate—Pueblo Indians—Wild Indians 
enumerated—Number of Pueblo Indians—Census—Proximate present population— 
Character of people and government—Santa Feé—Alburquerque—Valley of Toas— 
Statistics of Santa Fé Bi ae ak from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fé 
and El Paso, . J . ‘ 5 4 ' ‘ ic amod 


STATE OF CALIFORNIA.—Title to the region—Missionary settlement, its pur- 
poses—Character of California—Secularization of missions—Population in mis- 
sions—Agricultural statistics—Cattle—Hides—Tallow—Herdsmen—Trade—The 
war—Condition of California at its close—Progress of settlement and law—Con- 
stitution adopted—Admission as a state—Former boundaries—The great Basin— 
Utah—Great Salt Lake—Pyramid lake—Rivers—Present state boundaries—Area— 
Geography—Sacramento—San Joaquin—Shastl peak, . : . : - 367 


STATE OF CALIFORNIA CONTINUED.—Configuration of the state—Bay of 
San Francisco and city—Rivers of California—Character of soil, etc.—Relative 
sterility and productiveness—Climate—Dry and wet seasons—Causes of change— 
Climate in San Francisco, coast range valleys and interior valley—Area of arable 
and grazing land—Productions—Discovery of gold—Its position—The placeres— 


Washing—Digging—The Mines—Calculations as to the yield of the mines—Gold: 


yielded by California—Its quality—Quicksilver mines—Commerce—Population— 
Growth of cities—Old presidios—Towns—Land titles—Mission lands—Con- 
clusion, ; F ‘ 3 , ; ; : : ‘ P § . 378 


Apprenpix.—Meteorological Observations in California, : ; ; . 398 


BO OK TEN. 


GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF 
MEXICO— POLITICAL DIVISIONS — POPULATION; 
PRODUCTIONS — MINES — AGRICULTURE ; 
MANUFACTURES — COMMERCE — FINANCES — ARMY; 
NAVY —CHURCH—CONSTITUTION AND LAWS; 
NATIONAL CONDITION. 


BOOK IV. 


CHAP DaGe 1: 


GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL StRUcTURE OF MExico— 


EXTENT. 

ABSENCE OF ACCURACY — HUMBOLDT. — SUPERFICIAL EXTENT OF 
MEXICAN TERRITORY. — PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF MEXICO — 
VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS — CLIMATES — TIERRAS TEMPLADAS, CA- 
LIENTES, FRIAS. — POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND ROUNDARIES OF 
MEXICO. — OLD SPANISH DIVISIONS — PROVINCES — INTENDEN- 
CIES — STATES — DEPARTMENTS. — NORTH BOUNDARY — PRES- 


ENT STATES AND TERRITORIES.—RIVERS OF MEXICO.— RIVERS 
AND LAKES OF MEXICO. 


Ir is unfortunate that, notwithstanding the rich mineralogical 
and agricultural character of Mexico, no thoroughly accurate sur- 
vey or geological examination has ever been made of the whole 
country. ‘There is no complete map of the territory which may be 
confidently relied on. The enterprise of developing Mexico, since 
the foundation of the colonial government by Spain has been almost 
entirely abandoned to private enterprise, and, consequently the 
valuable information, collected by individuals, either perished in 
their hands after it had been used for their own benefit, or, if im- 
parted to the government, has never been united and collated with 
other accounts and reconnoissances which were in the hands of na- 
tional authorities. A great deal was done by Baron Alexander 
Humboldt, during his visit to New Spain early in this century, to- 
wards gathering the geographical, geological and statistical infor- 
mation which was then in existence, though scattered, far and 
wide, over the viceroyalty, in a thousand different hands. His 
voluminous work is an enduring monument to his industry and 
talent ; but there is necessarily a great deal of it that was altogether 
transitory in its character both on account of the political and social 
revolution which has since occurred, and in consequence of the 
opening, by the republic, of Mexican ports to the commerce of the 
world. 

Nevertheless, at the period of Humboldt’s visit, the main bold 
geographical and geological features of Mexico were sufficiently 


well known for practical purposes, and as his descriptions have, in 
B 


10 SUPERFICIAL EXTENT OF MEXICAN TERRITORY. 


most cases, stood the test of criticism during near half a century, we | 
may still safely appeal to him, and to his industrious countryman, 
Muhlenpfordt,! as the most reliable authorities upon these topics. 


According to Humboldt, Mexico presented a surface of one hun- 
dred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight square 
leagues, of twenty-five to the degree, yet this calculation did not in- 
clude the space between the northern extremity of New Mexico and 
Sonora, and the American boundary of 1819. Thirty-six thousand 
five hundred square leagues, comprising the States of Zacatecas, 
Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, 
Oajaca, Tabasco, Yucatan, Chiapas, were within the torrid zone; 
while New Mexico, Durango, New and Old California, Sonora and 
a great part of the old Intendancy of San Luis Potosi, containing 
in all eighty-six thousand square leagues, were under the tempe- 
rate zone. 

A more recent, and, generally, an accurate writer, ® has estimated 
the boundaries of Mexico, prior to the treaty of 1848, at Guada- 
lupe, between the United States and Mexico, to have embraced an 
area of one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, 
including Texas. By the treaty just mentioned we acquired an 
undisputed title to Texas, and a territorial cession of New Mexico 
and Upper California. 


Texas is estimated to contain, 325,520 square miles. 
New Mexico ‘* 6c TBSP es 6< 
Upper California cc 448,691 * 6 


851,598: 9 (8 i 

If we, therefore, deduct from the preceding estimate of one mil- 
lion six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, the sum of eight 
hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight 
square miles, we shall have, as the best approximate calculation, 
that we can now make, seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand 
four hundred and two square miles, for the total superficial extent 
of the Republic of Mexico, as at present bounded since the ratifi- — 
cation of our recent international treaty. By that negotiation it 
consequently appears that we have obtained one half the former 
territory of Mexico and twenty-six thousand five hundred and 
. ninety-eight square miles besides. 


1 Mihlenpfordt — Die Republik Mexico: Hanover, 1844, 2 vols. 

2 Ward, vol..1, p. 7. 3 Folsom’s Mexico in 1842, p. 29. 

4 See maps and tables of areas of the several states of our Union accompanying 
the President’s message of December, 1848. 


PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF MEXICO — VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. 11 


The geological structure or physiognomy of Mexico is peculiar. 
The great Cordillera of the Andes, which traverses the whole of 
South America, from its southernmost limit, is exceedingly de- 
pressed at the Isthmus of Panama, where its gentle swells serve 
merely to form a barrier between the union of the Pacific and At- 
lantic. But, as soon as this massive chain enters the broader 
portion of North America, it divides into two gigantic arms, to the 
east and west along the shores of the Gulf and of the Pacific, which 
support between them a continuous lofty platform, or series of table 
lands, crossed, broken, and intersected by innumerable and abrupt 
sterras, some of which rise to the height of seventeen thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. This geological structure prevails 
throughout the whole of Mexico, as now bounded; for, at the Rio 
Grande, the southern limit of Texas, the land sinks to comparative 
levels, and affords channels for the numerous and important streams 
with which, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are abundantly irrigated. 
Whilst this is the case on the northern and eastern confines of 
Mexico, the western portion is still traversed by the main body of 
the gigantic Cordillera, which, penetrating California with its icy 
peaks of the Sierra Nevada, passes onward to the north until its 
rocky walls are lost, beyond Oregon, in the wilderness that bounds 
the Frozen Sea. ! 

The reader who pictures to himself such a country will easily 
understand that all temperatures are gained in Mexico on the same 
parallel of latitude, —or that eternal heat and eternal frost are en- 
countered in crossing the country in a straight line from Vera Cruz 
to the Pacific coast. It is a country hanging on the two slopes of 
a mountain, one of which descends to the Gulf and the other to the 
Western Ocean; and the traveller, in penetrating it, even by the 
road usually traversed by public conveyances, must attain a height 
of ten thousand six hundred and sixty feet, before he begins to 
descend into the valley of Mexico, which is, still, seven thousand 
five hundred and forty-eight feet above the level of the sea! Thus 


"The high table land of Mexico which we have described, is said to owe its pre- 
sent form to the circumstance that an ancient system of valleys in a chain of gra- 
nitic mountains, has been filled up to the height of many thousand feet with various 
voleanic products. Five active volcanos traverse Mexico from west to east, — 
Tuxtla, Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Jorullo, and Colima. Jorulla which is in the cen- 
tre of the great platform is no less than one hundred and twenty miles from the 
nearest ocean, which is an important circumstance, showing that proximity to the 
sea is not a necessary condition although certainly a very general characteristic of 
the position of active volcanos. If the line which connects these five volcanic vents 
in Mexico be prolonged westerly, it cuts the volcanic group in the Pacific called 
the group of Revilla-Gigedo. — Lyell’s Geology, American edition, vol. 1, p. 294. 


12 CLIMATES —TIERRAS TEMPLADAS, CALIENTES, FRIAS. 


it is, that throughout the table lands, the geographical position, as 
far as latitude is concerned, is entirely neutralized by the extreme 
rarefaction of the atmosphere obtained by ascending through loftier 
regions. Humboldt graphically declares that climates succeed each 
other in strata or layers, as we pass from Vera Cruz to the capital, 
or from the capital, descend to Acapulco or San Blas on the 
west coast, — beholding in our varied journey, the whole scale of 
vegetable life. ‘The wild abundance of vegetation on the shore of 
the Gulf, —jits beautiful palms whose stems are wreathed by a 
myriad of impenetrable parasites which grow with such rank luxu- 
riance in the hot and humid air of the tropics, — are exchanged, 
as we begin to rise from the level of the sea, for hardier forest trees. 
At Jalapa the air is milder, though the vapors from the Gulf which 
concentrate and condense at about this height on the sides of the 
mountains, sustain the perpetual freshness of the verdure. Further 
on, the oak and the orange give place to the fir and pine. Here 
the rarefied air becomes pure, thin and perfectly transparent; but 
as it necessarily lacks moisture, which condenses below this region, 
the vegetation is neither so luxuriant nor so constantly vigorous. 
Great plains or basins, spread out in silent and melancholy vistas 
before the traveller, — many of them, cold, bleak and lonely moors, 
whose dreary levels sadden the heart of the spectator. The sun 
which comes down through the cloudless medium of an atmosphere 
unscreened by the usual curtain of vapor, parches and crisps the 
thirsty soil, whilst the winds that sweep uninterruptedly over the 
unbroken expanse, fill the air, during the dry season, with sand and 
dust. These high barren plains occupy a large portion of the 
centre of the country between Zacatecas, Durango and Saltillo; 
and such is in fact the character of large portions of the whole of 
Mexico, except when the comparatively level nature of the soil per- 
mits the small rivulets that filter from the Cordillera through the 
narrow vallies, to form themselves into rivers which may be used 
for irrigation. Wherever this is the case nature at once recovers 
her vigor under the influence of heat and moisture. 

These physical features, and consequent diversities of tempera- 
ture, have caused the division of Mexico, as it rises from the two 
Oceans, into three regions, or superficial strata, which are called, 
the tierras calientes, or hot lands ; the tterras templadas, or tem- 
yerate lands; and the tierras frias or cold lands. The tierra 
caliente covers chiefly that portion of the territory which hes on 
the borders of the Atlantic and Pacific; yet it is not confined 
exclusively to the coast, inasmuch as all those parts of Mexico 
in which there is heat and moisture enough to produce the fruits 


POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF MEXICO. 13 


and maladies of the tropics, are classed under this head. The 
tierra fria comprises the mountainous districts rising above the 
level of the capital up to the limit of constant snow; while the 
tierra templada embraces those milder middle regions not com- 
prehended in the two other sections. Classing them by elevation 
in feet, we may suppose that the tierras calientes extend to between 
3,000 and 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; the trerras tem- 
pladas to between 4 and 8,000 feet; and that the terras frias 
embrace all the remaining portions up to the region of eternal ice. 


PoxuiticaAL Divisions AND BounpDARIES OF Mexico. 


It is, perhaps, more of historical or antiquarian interest, than 
of actual present value, to recur to the ancient divisions of 
the viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, there are readers 
who are naturally anxious to trace the territorial aggrandizement 
as well as the recent curtailment of Mexico, and we have, there- 
fore, thought it proper to present a picture of the limits and 
apportionment of the country at several periods. 

The territorial limits of that region generally called New Sparn, 
were comprised between the degrees of 15° 58! and 42° of north 
latitude ; and between 89° 4’ and 126° 48’ 45” west longitude from 
Paris, — calculating from the easternmost point of Cape Catoché, 
in Yucatan, to the extreme western limit of the land at Cape 
Mendocino, in California. ‘The Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean 
Sea bounded this country on the east and south-east; the Pacific 
Ocean on the west; Guatemala on the south; and the United 
States, on the north. There was a multitude of islands compre- 
hended under this territorial dominion. On the east coast of 
Yucatan were the isles of Holvas, Comboy, Mugeres, Cancun, 
Cozumel and Ubero;—Zin the Gulf of Mexico, the island of 
Bermejos and several smaller ones ;— in the Pacific, the isles of 
Revilla-gigedo, of Maria, Cedros, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, 
San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Bernardo, San 
Miguel ;— and in the Gulf of California, or Cortéz, the isles of 
Cerralvo, Espiritu Santo, San José, Santa Cruz, Carmen, Tor- 
tugas, Tiburon, Santa Imez, and numerous insignificant islets or 


keys. 


The limit between the United States and New Spain was defined 
by a treaty negotiated between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish 
minister at Washington, and John Quincy Adams, American Sec- 
retary of State, after long and learned historical as well as legal dis- 
cussions of territorial rights and limits, which the student will find, 


14 OLD SPANISH DIVISIONS. 


at large, in the second and fourth volumes of ‘ American State 


Papers,”’ published by the government of the United States. This 


treaty was signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and, according to 
its third article, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, 
which was then ceded to the Union, commenced with the river 
Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, at about latitude 
29°, west longitude 94°, and followed its course as far as its 
juncture with the Red river of Natchitoches, which then served 
to mark the frontier up to the 100th degree of west longitude, 
whence the line ran directly north to the river Arkansas, which it 
followed to its source at the 42d° of north latitude, — whence 
another straight line was drawn upon the said 42d parallel, to the 
coast of the Pacific Ocean. 

This line, it was supposed, would interpose a perpetual barrier 
of wilderness, tenanted only by Indians and wild animals, between 
the republic of the north and the treasured colonies of the Spanish 
crown. But subsequent events have shown in the course of little 
more than the quarter of a century, how rapidly the population of 
the old world and the new has swelled beyond the limits prescribed 
by statesmen, until the savage and the beast have been made to 
yield their hunting grounds and forests for the use of civilized 
man. 


At the earliest period of which we have any authentic informa- 
tion, this territory of Spain was divided into the kingdoms of 
Mexico, New Galicia, and New Leon; the colony of New San- 
tander ; and the provinces of Coahuila, Texas, New Biscay, Sonora, 
New Mexico and the two Californias. This arrangement was 
extremely indefinite; but, in 1776, the country was divided into 
twelve intendancies: Merida, Oajaca, Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, 
Valladolid, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, 
New Biscay, and Sonora; and the three provinces of New Mexico, 
and Alta and Nueva California. The intendancy of San Luis 
Potosi, included New Leon, New Santander, Coahuila and Texas, 
and San Luis Potosi, proper;—the intendancy of New Biscay 
embraced the provinces of Durango and Chihuahua; and the 
intendancy of Sonora took in the provinces of Sinaloa, Ostimuri, 
and Sonora. Each intendancy was subdivided into subdelegaciones. 
Another division cut off New Spain, proper, from the Provincias 
Internas. These last named provinces included all the territory 
lying north and northwesterly of the intendancies of Zacatecas and 
Guadalajara, or the kingdom of Nueva Gallicia. The ‘‘ Provincias 
Internas del Vireynato,”’ must be distinguished from the ‘‘ Provin- 


PROVINCES —INTENDENCIES—-STATES, DEPARTMENTS. 15 


cias Internas de la Commandancia de Chihuahua,’’ which, in 1779, 
were comprised in a General-Captaincy. The two intendancies 
New Biscay and Sonora, then part of San Luis Potosi, belonged to 
the provinces of Coahuila and Texas. The interior provinces of 
the viceroyalty were the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, including 
-the provinces of New Leon and New Santander. The actual 
kingdom of New Spain was composed of the intendancies of 
Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Guadalajara, Valladolid, Zacatecas, 
Guanajuato, Oajaca, Merida, and San Luis, proper, and the two 
Californias. In the year 1807, the “* Provincias Internas’’ were 
divided into western and eastern, and two general commandancies 
created. 

Ist. The Provincias Internas Occidentales, or Western, were the 
intendancies of Sonora, Durango, with Chihuahua (new Biscay) ; 
the province of New Mexico, and the two Californias. 

2d. The Provincias Internas Orientales, or Eastern, were, Coa- 
huila, Texas, New Santander and New Leon. 


Such were the main territorial divisions of New Spain during 
the concluding years of the Spanish government,— whilst the 
revolution was in progress,— and until the nineteen provinces of 
the empire of Iturbide were erected by the federal constitution of 
1824 into the nineteen States of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and 
Texas, Durango, Guanajuato, Mexico, Michoacan (Valladolid), 
New Leon, Oajaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sonora 
and Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Jalisco ( Guadala- 
jara,) Yucatan, and Zacatecas,— and the Trerrirortes of Old 
and New California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala. In 1830 
the State of Sinaloa and Sonora, separated into its natural divi- 
Sions, since which each has been a distinct, independent State. In 
1836, the revolution which destroyed this federal constitution, 
changed these StarEs into Departments; by which name they 
were recognized until the month of May, 1847, when the old 
federal constitution of 1824, with some amendments, was re- 
enacted, and the departments once more converted into states ; 
whilst provision was made for the creation of the new state of 
Guerrero, to be composed of the districts of Acapulco, Chilapa, 
Tasco and Talpa, and the municipality of Coyucan—the three 
first of which pertain to the state of Mexico, the fourth to Puebla, 
and the fifth to Michoacan,— provided these three states gave 
their consent within three months from the 21st of May, 1847, at 
which period the act reforming the constitution of 1824 was passed. 

The war between Mexico and the United States was happily 


16 NORTH BOUNDARY— PRESENT STATES AND TERRITORIES. 


terminated by the treaty negotiated at the town of Guadalupe, by 
Mr. 'Trist, on the 2d of February, 1848; and, by this compact, 
the limit between our respective territories was greatly changed 
from that which had been fixed by the treaty with Spain in 1819. 
According to the convention of Mr. Trist, the boundary between 
the republics commences in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from 
land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio 
Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it 
should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; 
from thence it passes up the middle of that river, following the 
deepest channel, when it has more than one, to the point where it 
strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico, thence, westerly, 
along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico, which runs 
north of the town of El Paso, to its western termination ; — thence 
northward, along the western line of New Mexico, until it intersects 
the first branch of the river Gila, or, if it does not intersect any 
branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to 
such branch, and then in a direct line to the same ; — thence down 
the middle of the said branch and of said river, until it empties 
into the Rio Colorado ;— thence across the Rio Colorado, follow- 
ing the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the 
Pacific Ocean. 

It will be perceived by inspecting the map that this new boun- 
dary cuts off a large portion of northern Mexico, and gives us the 
valuable territories of New Mexico and Upper California, together 
with an undisputed right to the enjoyment of Texas, which had 
previously been united to the North American confederacy by inter- 
national contract, after the independence of Texas had been 
recognized by foreign nations and maintained by its own people. 

The states of the Mexican Republic and its territories are, con- 
sequently, under the existing constitution, the following : 


STATES. 

1. Coahuila. 8. Puebla. 15. Durango. 

2. Tamaulipas. 9. Mexico, with the 16. New Leon. 
Federal District. 

3. Vera Cruz. 10. Michoacan. 17. Zacatecas. 

4. Tabasco. 14)... Jalisco. 18. San Luis Potosi, 

5. Yucatan. 12. Sonora. 19. Guanajuato. 

6. Chiapas. 13. Sinaloa. 20. Queretaro. 

7. Oajaca. 14. Chihuahua. 21. Guerrero. 
TERRITORIES. 


1. Lower California. 2: ‘Colima. 3. Tlascala. 


RIVERS OF MEXICO. 17 


Rivers AND LAKES OF Mexico. 
I. On tHe Eastern Coasts. 


1st. The Rio Granpe peu Norte, or Rio Bravo, which is the 
largest of all Mexican streams, and rises, in about 403° north lati- 
tude, and 100° west longitude, from Paris, in the lofty sierras 
which are a continuation of the gigantic chain that forms the spine 
of our continent. It pursues a southeasterly direction towards the 
Gulf of Mexico, and traverses a distance of nearly eighteen hun- 
dred miles. 

2d. The Rio pet Tiers, rises in the state of Coahuila, and 
passes, in a southward and easterly direction, through the states of 
New Leon and Tamaulipas, and finally, after traversing about three 
hundred miles, debouches in the Gulf of Mexico. 

3d. The Rio pe Borson, or Rio Branco. The sources of this 
stream are in New Leon, whence it runs towards the east, and, 
crossing the state of Tamaulipas, falls in the Laguna Manpre. 

Ath. The Rio pr SANTANDER, rises in the state of Zacatecas, 
crosses the state of San Luis Potosi, passes by Tamaulipas, 
winds to the north, and falls, near the bar of Santander, into the 
Gulf. 

5th. The Rio pr Tampico, is formed by the union of the rivers 
Panuco and Tuta. The upper source of the Panuco is in the 
neighborhood of the city of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state 
of that name. Near half a league north north-east of this city, in 
the valley de la Pila, rises a spring which is protected by a basin 
of fine masonry, and conveyed by an aqueduct to town. Several 
other streams, coming from the south-west, unite with this source 
and form the Panuco. West of the first of these streams, swells 
up the mountainous ridge which divides the waters of Mexico 
between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Panuco courses east- 
wardly,— and, passing rapidly through the Lacuna Cuairé1, 
unites with the Tuta. This latter stream mingles the waters of 
the rivulets Tepexi, Tequisquiac, and Tlantla, in the northern part 
of the state of Mexico ; and receiving, by the canal of Huehuetoca, 
the water of the Rio Quautitlan, it winds onward through the 
valley of Tula, and near the limits of the states of Queretaro and 
Vera Cruz, until it joins the Panuco. These united rivers receive 
in the state of Tamaulipas, the name of the Rio pE Tampico, 
which debouches, finally, in the Gulf of Mexico. 

6th. The Rio Buawnco rises in the state of Vera Cruz, near 
Aculzingo, at the foot of Citlaltepetl, or the mountain of Orizaba. 

U 


18 RIVERS OF MEXICO. 


It courses onward through a varying and rough channel among 
the mountains and plains, until it is lost in the lagunes near 
Alvarado. | 

7th. The Rio pE San Juan. The sources of this river lie partly 
in the metallic mountains of Ixtlan, in the state of Oajaca, and partly 
in the neighborhood of Tehuacan de las Granadas. Many large, 
but wild streams, spring up in these mountain regions, and form 
the broad but shallow Rio GRANDE DE QuiotTEPeEc. ‘This river, 
after winding through the valley of Cuicatlan, receives, from the 
south, the large stream of Las'VuE.LrAs; and all these unite to form 
the Rio pr San Juan, which pursues its eastern course until it ap- 
proaches the coast near Alvarado, when it divides into two arms. 
One of these, named TEcomareE, joining the CosomaLoaPan and 
Paso, form the large lagunes of Trequiapa and EmBparcaDERO, — 
whilst the other arm, by a different course, also debouches in the 
same lagunes. | 

8th. The Rro pe GuasacuaLco, rises at about 16° 58’ of north 
latitude, and 96° 19’ west longitude, from Paris, in the mountains 
of Tarifa, and pours onward towards the east, receiving accessions 
from a great number of small mountain streams and rivulets, until 
it falls into the Gulf of Mexico. 

9th. The Rio pr Tasasco, or Rio pe Grisatva, or Rio 
GUICHULA, rises in the mountains of Cuchumatlanes towards the 
centre of Guatemala, and falls into the gulf at the port of Tabasco. 

10th. The Rio pe UsumasintTa, rises also in Guatemala, and 
debouches in the Lacuna DE TERMINOS. : 


Il. Smatt Eastern Coast STREAMS. 


Rio GARCES. Rio ANTIGUA: 

Rio pE TUSPAN. Rio pE JAmapA,or MEDELLIN 
Rio DE CaZoNneEs. Rio Aquivitco. 

Rio pE TENISTEPEC. Rio pE Tonaua. 

Rio pE JAJALPAM, or TECOLUTLA.Rio DE Santa ANNA, 
Rio pe NAvtTLA. Rio DE CapPitco. 

Rio pE TLAPACOYAN. Rio DE pos Bocas. 
Rio pE PaLMaAR. Rio DE CHILTEPEC. 
Rio peE MIzANTLA. Rro DE SABOJA. 

Rio pe’ MaGuiLMANAPA. Rio DE CHaAamporton. 
Rio pE YEGUASCALCO. Ric pe CHEN. 

Rio DE ACTOPAN. Rio pE EscaTaLuo. 
Rio DE CHUCHALACA. Rio pe San Francisco, 
Rio DE San ANGEL. Rio DE SILAN. 


Rio pE San CaRLos. Rio CEpRos. 


RIVERS OF MEXICO. 19 


Rio Conliu. Rio DE LA ASCENSION. 
Rio Bouino. Rio San Jos&. 
Rio Nuevo. Rio Honpo. 


Rio Bacauar. 

Many of these streams are, in fact, not entitled to the name of 
rivers, though a few of them are important, whilst all are valuable 
to some extent for agriculture, transportation, irrigation, or occa- 
sional water power. 


Ill. Rivers on THE WEstT AND SoutH Coast or Mexico. 


Ist. Rio pE CuHImMALAPA, sometimes called also, Rio pE Cur- 
CAPA, rises in the forests and mountains of Tarifa in about 16° 43! 
north, 96° 33’ west from Paris, and debouches in the Pacific, after 
passing the village of Tehuantepec. The rivers Opstuxa, NILTE- 
pec or EstEPEc,— DE Los Perros or JucuuiTaNn, ARENAS, La- 
GARTERO, OTATES, are small coast streams falling into the lagunes 
that border the ocean. 

2d. The Rio pe TEHUANTEPEC is formed by the union of two 
streams, one of which rises about fifty leagues west north-west of 
Tehuantepec, near the village of San Dionisio, whilst the other 
springs from the mountains of Lyapi and Quiégolani, in the lands of 
the Chontales. The two unite seven leagues north-west of Tehu- 
antepec ; and, passing by the village of that name, this river finally 
pours into the Pacific, near the small port of Las Ventosas. 

3d. The Rio VeRpE rises in the Upper Misteca, eight leagues 
north of Oajaca, and falls west of the Cerro de la Plata and of the 
Lagunas of Chacahua, into the Pacific. On the coast of Oajaca 
there are many smaller streams and rivulets, such as the Cuaca- 
LAPA, the ManiaLtTEpec, the CoLotEerec, the Santa HELENA, 
the Capurita, the Comun, the AyutLaA, the CuicoMETEPEC and 
the Tecoyama, —the last of which is the boundary between the 
states of Oajaca and Puebla. 

4th. The Rio*pr TLascata, or Rio pE Papacatto, has its 
source in the vicinity of the town of Tlascala, in the mountain At- 
lancatepetl; passes through the state of Puebla, receives the Rio 
Mezcata, out of the state of Mexico, and enters the Pacific south 
of the village of Ayulta. 

Sth. The Rio pE Zacatuta, or Rrio Batsas, originates in the 
valley of Istla, in the state of Mexico, and after winding west south- 
westerly, it receives the Rios Ziracuaro, de Cuurumuco, and del 
Marquez out of the state of Michoacan, and passes into the 
Pacific. 

6th. Rito pe Azra.a rises two leagues south-west of the village 


90 RIVERS OF MEXICO. 


of Coalcoman, receives the Acamitco, Maruaro and Cuicuucva, 
and flows into the sea between Cachan and Chocdla. 

7th. Rio pe Tototian, or Rio GrRanvE DE Santiago. This 
is one of the longest and most important of Mexican rivers, formed 
by the junction of the Laxa and Lerma, near Salamanca, in 
the state of Guanajuato, and falls into the Pacific near San Blas 
after a course of about two hundred leagues. The Rio Bayéna or 
Caias is an important stream on the coast near the boundary be- 
tween Jalisco and Sinaloa. 

8th. The Rio pE Curiacan rises in the north of the state of 
Durango, where it is called Rio Sanzepa, thence it takes its 
course towards the north-west, receiving some smaller streams, and 
then passing by the town of Culiacan, falls into the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia. The Rio pe Rosario, Rio pe Mazatuan, debouche in 
the same gulf. The rivers Prastta, Evora, Tavata, Emaya, 
Mocorito, Sinatoa or Ocroni, AHOME, are small streams on 
the coast of Sinaloa. 

9th. The Rio pet Fuerte has its source in the metalliferous 
mountains of Batopilas and Uruachi, in the state of Chihuahua, 
where it is known as the river Batorizas. It takes a westerly 
course across the state of Sinaloa about 27° north ; —it receives a 
number of other streams, on the western slope of a range of the 
Cordilleras, and finally flows into the California Gulf. 

10th. The Rio Mayo is the boundary stream between the states 
of Sinaloa and Sonora; at its mouth in the Gulf of California is 
the small port of Santa Cruz de Mayo, or Guitivis. 

11th. The Rio H1aqut, or Yaqut, rises on the west slope of the 
Sierra Madre, near the village Matatiche in the state of Chihuahua, 
whence its course is west south-west, across the state of Sonora; 
it receives the Rio GRANDE DE Bavispe which rises in the state 
of Chihuahua, and also the Rios Oposura and Cuico, and, finally, 
is lost in the Gulf of California, at about 27° 37’ north latitude. 

12th. Rio p—E Guayamas. ‘This river rises at San José de Pi- 
mas, in latitude 28° 26’ north, its course is west south-west, 
and its mouth in the Californian Gulf, at the fine and favorite harbor 
of San-Jose de Guayamas in latitude 27° 40’. 

13th. The R1io pE La AScENsIon rises at about 31° 40/ north 
and 112° 37’ west longitude. On its south-westerly course it re- 
ceives the tributary waters of the Rio pe Saw Ienactio and falls at 
about 30° 20’ north into the Gulf of California. 

14th. Rio pe Cotorapo. This important stream is formed of 
the river Rarae. in about 40° 15’ north, and 110° 50’ west longi- 
tude from Paris, on the western declivity of the Sierra de las Grul- 


RIVERS AND LAKES OF MEXICO. 21 


las, whence it takes a south-west course and receives, at the foot 
of the Monte de Sal Gemme, the Rio pr Nuestra SENORA DE 
Dotores, which springs about 1° 30’ west of the Rarart, in the 
Cerro de la Plata; and, thus, receiving the accretions of a number 
of other streams, it courses onward until it is lost at the head of the 
Gulf of California. The whole length of the Coxorapo is esti- 
mated at about two hundred and fifty leagues. For about fifty 
leagues it is navigable by small sea going vessels ; and, for about a 
hundred leagues higher, it may be traversed by large boats. The sea 
is said to ebb and flow between thirty-five and forty leagues beyond 
the mouth of this river. ‘The sources of the Arkansas and of the 
Rio GRANDE DEL Norte lie very near those of the CoLorapo; so 
that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Gulf of California 
are nearly united by these streams across our continent. 

15th. The Rio Gia rises in the Sierra de los Mimbres, and de- 
scends to the south, through a small and mountain bound valley 
until it unites with the Colorado. 


IV. Laxes, Lacunes, &c. 


1. Timpanogos and Tryueo or SaLapbo. 
2. Lacunas DE Bavisre, San Martin, DE GuzMAN, DE Paros, 

pE Encinitias and pE CastTILua in the state of Chihuahua. 

3. The Lacuna pE CayMaANn in the Botson pE Mapin1. 

4, The Laxes of Parras and Acua VERDE on the west boun- 
dary of Coahuila. 

5. The Laxes of CuHarcas, CHArIREL and Cura in the state 
of San Luis Potosi. 

6. Nine small Sopa Laxes in Zacatecas. 

7. The large and important Laxe of Cuapaua and others in 
Jalisco. 

8. Pazcuaro, Cuizco, Araron, Huaneo, Tanevarto, and Hv- 
ANIQUO in Michoacan. 

9. The five large Laxes of TEzcoco, Cuatco, Xocuimixco, 
San Cristovau and Zumpaneo in the valley of Mexico. 

10. The Laxes of Atenco, CoaTetitco, and Tenancineo in 
the valley of Toluca. 

11. A number of small ones in Oajaca. 

12. The Laxes of Tampico, CatEemaco, Auisoyuca, TE- 
NANGO, Cuiapa on the gulf coast or near it. 

13. The Lake of Yurrrapunparo in Guanajuato. 


CHAPTER II. 
MEXICAN CLASSES. 


DIVISION OF POPULATION — WHITES — INDIANS — AFRICANS — LE- 
PEROS — RANCHEROS — CHARACTERISTICS — INDIFFERENCE — 
PROCRASTINATION. — FEMALES —BETTER CLASSES— THEIR SO- 


CIAL HABITS — ENTERTAINMENTS. — LEPEROS — THEIR HABITS. 
— EVANGELISTAS — THIEVING. — THE RANCHERO — HIS CHAR- 
ACTER AND HABITS. — THE INDIAN RACE — AGRICULTURISTS — 


TRADITIONARY HABITS ADHERED TO — IMPROVIDENCE— SUPER- 
STITION — DRUNKENNESS — INDIAN WOMEN —SERVILE CON- 
DITION — LOCAL ADHESIVENESS — PEONAGE — WHIPPING. — 
PLANTER-LIFE — ITS SOLITUDE AND RESULTS. — MUHLENP- 
FORDT’S CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. —INDIAN TRIBES AND 
RACES IN MEXICO. — TABLE OF CASTES IN MEXICO. 


Aw adequate and proper classification of the Mexican population, 
for descriptive purposes, may be made under the general heads of: 
Whites, Indians, Africans, and the mixed breeds, who are socially 
sub-divided into— 1st, the educated and respectable Mexicans 
dwelling in towns, villages or on estates; 2d, the Leperos; and 
ad, the Rancheros. 

The whites are still classed in Mexico as creoles, or, natives of 
the country; and gachupines and chapetones, who are Spaniards 
born in the Peninsula. The Spanish population yet remaining in the 
country, its immediate descendants, and the emigrants from Spain, 
form a numerous and important body. Her Catholic Majesty’s 
Consul General in Mexico derives a lucrative revenue from supply- 
ing this large class of his countrymen with annual “ protections, ” 
or “‘cartas de seguridad,” granted by the Mexican government, 
but procured from it through the instrumentality of this functionary. 

The Spaniard no longer holds his former rank in the social scale 
of the ancient colony. ‘There are many wealthy mercantile families 
in the republic, who owe allegiance to the crown; but among the 
mechanical classes there are numbers of poor Castilians whose fate 
would be melancholy in Mexico, were they not succored and pro- 
tected by their wealthier countrymen. 

The Mexican native, in whose veins there is almost always a 
few drops of indigenous blood, is commonly indolent and often 
vicious. The bland climate and his natural temperament predis- 
pose him for an indulgent, easy and voluptuous life; yet the many 


CHARACTERISTICS — INDIFFERENCE. 


faults of his character may be fairly attributed to the want of edu- 
cation, early self-restraint and the disordered political state of his 
country which has produced a bad effect upon social life. With 
quick and often solid talents, the Mexican. citizen is not devoted, 
early in his career, by thoughtful parents, either to intellectual pur- 
suits or to that mental discipline which would regulate an impulsive 
temperament or fit him for the domestic, scientific, or political po- 
sition he might attain in other countries, under a different social 
régime. He recollects that in the best days of the colony his 
family had been distinguished, powerful and rich, and he finds it 
difficult, in his present impoverished state, to forget this traditionary 
position. Accordingly, he acts upon the memorial basis of the 
past, as if it were still within his grasp or control. This renders 
him thriftlessly improvident. Mexicans still speak of the epoch 
when they or their parents ‘“‘swam in'gold,” or dispensed ducats 
to the dependants on whom they now reluctantly bestow coppers. 
Besides this, their indolent indifference, which almost amounts to 
Arab fatalism, makes them not only subservient to the past, but 
idolators of a hope which is quite as fallacious. According to their 
belief, better times are continually approaching. Something, they 
imagine, will shortly occur to improve their broken or periled for- 
tunes. ‘* Paciencia y barajar,’’ —‘‘ patience and shuffle the 
cards, ”? is a maxim on the lips of every one who is overthrown by 
a revolution, loses his friends, incurs censure, or finds himself 
starving for want of a dollar. If you'enquire as to their prospects, 
their friends, their interests, or, indeed, in regard to almost any 
subject that requires some reflection for a reasonable reply, — they 
answer with the habitual — “‘ Quien Sabe !’’ —‘‘ who can tell! ” 
which in the vocabulary of a common Mexican is the — “‘ quod 
erat demonstrandum’’ of any social or political problem. 

Such qualities and habits do not prepare a nation for resolute ac- 
tion upon progressive principles. We consequently find, throughout 
Mexico, an universal predisposition to dependence upon others, or to 
a blind reliance upon chance. ‘The drum and the bell which ring 
forever in our ears in Mexico, apprise us that immense numbers 
who possess sufficient influence to introduce them into the army or 
the church, repose comfortably under the protection of those two 
eleemosynary institutions. Such is, moreover, the case in all the 
administrative departments of the government. Indeed, the state 
seems only to be constitutionally organized in order to supply the 
wants of those it employs, or to found a genteel hospital in which 
intriguing idlers are supported either at the expense of industrious 


24 


PROCRASTINATION — FEMALES. 


men or by contracting national loans which may finally overwhelm 
the republic. 

The church, the army, and the government, are thus three per- 
manent resources for young persons who are too indolent to engage 
in mercantile pursuits, or too proud to stoop from their hereditary 
family rank either into trade or the workshop. 

Bad as are these social features, there is another which may be 
reckoned still worse. There are thousands in the republic whose 
daily reliance is exclusively on fortune, and for whom the turn of a 
card decides whether they are to return to their comfortless families 
with a plentiful dinner, or without a cent upon which they may, 
to-morrow, recommence their contest with luck at the gambling 
table. This is a dreadful vice when it becomes habitual among a 
naturally susceptible, thriftless and procrastinating people like the 
Mexicans. Prodigal not only of their gold but of their time, they 
squander the latter without ever reflecting that it is the capital of 
industrious men. They regard business as a burden, and put off, 
whenever they are permitted, a debt, an engagement, or a duty, 
“ hasta manana’? — until to-morrow! 

We are perhaps wrong in alleging that every duty is procrasti- 
nated, and life given up exclusively to pleasure; for the genuine 
Mexican is strict and punctual in the performance of, at least, the 
externals of religion. ‘The pious observances of the church, are, 
however, even more generally rigorous among the women than 
the men. 


The Mexican females in the upper ranks are badly, if at all, edu- 
cated. Few foreign modern improvements have been engrafted on 
the old Spanish system of teaching, whilst the subjects taught, and 
the text-books used, are quite as primitive. At home, the Mexi- 
can lady is obsequiously served by devoted domestics, but is brought 
up without a personal knowledge of a housewife’s thrifty duties. 
The evil influence of such vacant minds upon the male sex must, 
necessarily, be very great. If the intellect does not suggest topics 
for conversation, it is natural that the instincts will supply the de- 
ficiency. Thus it is that the life of large numbers of Mexican men 
is summed up in devotion to their horses, their queridas, and 
their favorite gambling tables; whilst the existence of Mexican 
women is as easily divided between mass, meals, dress, driving, 
and the theatre. 

Yet we will not be tempted by an epigrammatic sentence, into 
condemnation of the whole of Mexican society. It would be un- 


BETTER CLASSES —THEIR SOCIAL HABITS. 25 


just to convey an unqualified idea that such are the characteris- 
tics of the entire white race whose birth or rank entitle it to an ex- 
alted social position. Nevertheless, it is a true picture of perhaps 
the most numerous class. The Mexican revolution — its strug- 
gles, endurance and success,— disclose many manly features of 
national character, and prepare us to appreciate that patriotic and 
cultivated body of men and women who form the national heart 
and hope of the republic. 

The Mexicans have been so harshly dealt with in the descrip- 
tions of foreigners, that they are not always disposed to wel- 
come them beyond their thresholds. This arises neither from fear 
nor jealousy, but from the natural distrust of persons whom they 
imagine visit their country with but little sympathy for its institu- 
tions and less consideration for their personal habits. Nor is this 
repulsiveness to strangers exhibited so much in the fashionable cir- 
cles of society as it is among that loftier description of persons we 
have already referred to. Yet there are occasions upon which the 
houses and hearts of this very class are cordially opened to intelli- 
gent and discreet foreigners, and it is then that an opportunity is 
afforded of seeing the best phases of Mexican character. The fine 
benevolence of ancient friendship, the universal respect for genius, 
a competent knowledge of the laws and institutions of other coun- 
tries, a perfect acquaintance with the causes of Mexican decadence, 
and a charming regard and care for all those domestic rites which 
cement the affections of a home circle, may all be observed and ad- 
mired within the walls of a Mexican dwelling. 

When a stranger is thus received in the confidential intimacy of 
a household, there is no longer any restraint put upon the inmates 
in his presence. The courteous expressions which are ordinarily 
used in the commerce of society, and whose formal but excessive 
politeness have induced careless men to imagine the Mexicans in- 
sincere, are now only expressive of the most cordial devotion to 
your interests and wants. ‘‘ Mi casa esta a su disposition,” ‘‘ my 
house is at your disposal,” means exactly what it says. You are 
at home. 

As the Mexicans are not a people addicted to the same mode or 
extent of informal social intercourse among themselves as the Ger- 
mans, the English, or the Americans, it is not strange that they 
should guard their doors so carefully against foreigners who visit 
their country for the purpose of acquiring fortunes rapidly, in order 
to enjoy them in the society of their native land. The reception 
of a stranger upon an intimate footing is therefore the greatest 

D 


26 ENTERTAINMENTS — LEPEROS. 


compliment he can receive from the meritorious classes. It is not 
alone with public affairs or purely intellectual discussions that we 
are entertained in such re-unions of cultivated society. In the free 
conversation of the intimate circle there is always a cordial display 
of sincere interest for the welfare of each other. The aspirations 
of the rich or the hopes of the poor, are always tenderly discussed, 
There is abundant evidence of heart ; and, even after years have 
elapsed, and the sojourner in Mexico has returned to his home, he 
will find by his correspondence that he is still remembered by the 
intelligent friends, who made him forget that he was ‘a stranger 
in a strange land.”’ 

The Mexicans have generally supposed that it was impossible to 
entertain their friends without an extravagant expenditure which 
was perhaps the standard that measured the value of their guests. 
They have still to learn that a simple style and a cordial welcome 
together with the refined conversational intercourse are more val- 
ued than imported champagne and “‘ paté de foie gras.”? As soon 
as their society becomes less old fashioned and formal, they will 
find themselves more comfortable in the presence of strangers. In 
Mexico, as in all countries, there are notorious specimens of ego- 
tism, haughtiness, ill-breeding, and loose morals, both among men 
and women; and although we find these worthless elements float- 
ing like bubbles on the surface of society, they must not be re- 
garded as exclusive national characteristics. ‘‘ A nation, in which 
revolutions and counter-revolutions are events of almost daily oc- 
currence, is naturally prolific in desperate and crafty political 
adventurers ;” but the evils that have been begotten by the past, 
must not be considered as permanent. 

The Lepero is a variety of the Indian, and combines in himself 
most of the bad qualities of the two classes from whose union he 
derives his being. He is the inhabitant of cities, towns or vil- 
lages, and, is in Mexico, what the lazzaroni are in Naples. 
‘Neither white, black nor copper colored; neither savage nor Civi- 
lized; neither an agriculturist nor a mechanic, the lepero occupies 
an equivocal position upon the boundaries of all these charac- 
ters. His existence is altogether a matter of chance. He has 
scarcely ever a permanent home. His wife and children, or 
his amiga, are lodged on the ground floor of a hovel in the out- 
skirts of the town, from which he is often expelled in consequence 
either of his poverty, intemperance, or quarrelsome behavior. 
If unmarried, he finds a resting place, in these delicious climates, 
on a mat beneath the sky, or within the friendly shelter of a wall 


ri slats it Sie) (ytd 5 


Hi 


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a5 


Mein 


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BOSE 


of 


THEIR HABITS — EVANGELISTAS — THIEVING. an 


or portico. He is devoted to pulque and music; for, whilst he 
drains his social glass in the pulquerta amid a crowd of com- 
panion leperos, he is ever ready to sing a stave or make a verse in 
which a spice of wit or satire is certainly found. When he has 
earned a dollar by toil, he quits his labor even before it is com- 
pleted, in order to spend his enormous gain. His wants are so 
small that he may be liberal in his vices. He regards work as an 
odious imposition upon human nature; and, created merely to live, 
he takes care only of to-day leaving to-morrow to take care of 
itself. Prudence, he thinks, would be a manifest distrust of Provi- 
dence. His food, purchased at the corner of a street from one of 
the peripatetic cooks, consists of a few tortillas or corncakes, 
steeped in a pan of Chili peppers compounded with lard. A frag- 
ment of beef or fowl sometimes gives zest to the frugal mess. His 
dress, of narrow cotton or leather trowsers,and a blanket which is 
at once, bed, bedding, coat and cloak, —1is worn season after season 
without washing, except during the providential ablutions of rain, 
until the mingled attrition of dirt and time entirely destroy the 
materials. An occasional crime, or quarrel, which is terminated by 
a resort to knives and copious phlebotomy, sends him several times 
every year to the public prison, where he is faithfully visited, fed 
and consoled by his spouse or amiga. As he passes along the 
streets with the manacled chain-gang to sweep the town, he begs a 
claco with such bewitching impudence that the man who refuses 
the demanded alms must be insensible to humor. Like the Indian, 
he is remarkably skilful in imitation, and makes figures of wax or 
rags, which are not only singularly faithful as portraits, but possess 
a certain degree of grace that 1s worthy of an artist. Some of the 
tribe read and write with ease and even elegance. Among this class 
_ are to be found the evangelistas or letter writers, who, seated around 
the portales and side walks of the plaza, are ready, at a moment’s 
notice, to indite a sonnet to a mistress, a petition to government, 
a letter to an absent husband, or a wrathful effusion to a faithless 
lover. Another branch of this nomadic horde is engaged in the 
profitable occupation of ‘‘ thieving,’ which requires no capital in 
trade save nimble fingers, rapid action, and a bold look with which 
detection may be defied. The narrow streets and lanes of towns 
_are the theatres in which these accomplished rogues perform. No 
man in Mexico dares indulge in the luxury of carrying a handher- 
chief in his pocket. The attempt would be useless, for a lepero 
would appropriate it before the stranger had walked a square. 
Upon one occasion a hat was actually taken off an Englishman’s 


28 THE RANCHERO — HIS CHARACTER AND HABITS. 


head by a lepero in a dense crowd; but the act was so adroitly 
done, that the jolly foreigner joined in the shout of laughter with 
which the hero was hailed as he vanished among the masses. 
Should the priest pass at such a moment with the host, on his way 
to the chamber of a dying citizen, the lepero would fall on his 
knees with the rest of the townspeople, yet whilst he beat his 
breast with one hand, he might be seen to keep the other tena- 
ciously in his victim’s pocket. If caught in the felonious act, which 
rarely happens, the lepero takes the inflicted blows or choking with 
craven humility, and, whilst he shouts — ‘‘ ya esta, Senor amo, — 
ya esta!’’ ‘enough, my master, oh enough!” he is seeking for 
another opportunity to pilfer his punisher’s watch or purse, during 
the conflict. 

Such is the Mexican lepero. ‘The sketch may seem broad or 
even caricatured to those who are unacquainted with the country, 
but its accuracy will be acknowledged by all who have resided in 
Mexico and been haunted by the filthy tribe. 


The RancHERo comes next in our classification of the Mexi- 
cans. He is a small farmer, or vaquero, who owns or hires a few 
acres on which he cultivates his corn or grazes his cattle. He is 
not an Indian, a white man, an African, or a lepero, yet he mixes 
the qualities of all in his motly character. He is a person of lofty 
thoughts and aspirations; —a devoted patriot; — a staunch fighter 
in all the revolutions whenever guerillas are required ;—a hard 
rider and capital boon companion over a bottle or in a journey 
among the mountains. 

On his small estate he devotes himself to the cultivation of the 
ground, or leaves this menial occupation to his family whilst he 
goes off to the wars or to carousals and fandangos in the neighbor- 
ing village pulquerias. He is an Arab in his habits, and especially 
in his love and management of the horse. Dressed in his leather 
trowsers and jerkin; with his serape over his shoulders, his broad 
brimed and silver corded sombrero on his head; his heels armed with 
spurs whose three-inch rowels gleam like the blades of daggers; his 
sword strapped to the saddle beneath his armas de agua, and, grasp- 
ing his gun in his hand, — the Ranchero is ready, as soon as he 
mounts, to follow you for months over the republic. He is the 
nomade of the country, as the Jepero is of the town. His devotion 
to his animal is unbounded. The faithful quadruped is his best 
friend and surest reliance. His lazo lies curved gracefully in fes- 
toons around the pommel of his saddle. Thus, with his trusty 


‘SOUPHOINVE 


ty 


4 \\ Y f My 
an \ \ 


iii 


THE INDIAN RACE. 29 


weapons and his horse, the mounted ranchero is at home in the for- 
est or in the open field; on hill side or in valley. Few riders, else- 
where, can equal him in speed or horsemanship ; and few can excel 
him as a herdsman, a robber, an enemy, or even a friend whenever 
you hit his fancy or are willing to understand his character and 
pardon his sins. 


Inpian Race or Mexico. 


Notwithstanding the brilliant pages which Aztec history contri- 
buted to the annals of America and the civilization which prevailed, 
not only in the valley of Mexico, but also in other portions of the 
territory now within the limits of the republic, we find that the in- 
digenous descendants of these heroic and intelligent ancestors have 
degenerated to such a degree that they are at present in general, 
fitted only for the servile toils to which they are commonly and 
habitually devoted. ‘Three hundred years of oppression may have 
done much to produce this sad result. Without union among the 
tribes ; without community of feeling, language or nationality ; the 
Indians became an easy prey to the Spaniards after the conquest 
of the great central power. Old prophecies were accomplished, 
according to the Aztec belief, by the arrival of the Spaniards. ‘It 
is long since we knew from our ancestors,’’ — said Montezuma to 
Cortéz, — ‘‘that neither I nor all who inhabit these lands were ori- 
ginally of them, but that we are strangers, and came hither from 
distant places. It was said that a great lord conveyed our race to 
these regions and returned to the land of his birth, and yet, came 
back once more to us. But, in the meantime, those whom he first 
brought had intermarried with the women of the country; and 
when he desired them to return again to the land of their fathers 
they refused to go. He went alone; and ever since have we 
believed, that from among those who were the descendants of that 
mighty lord, one shall come to subdue this land, and make us his 
vassals!’ According to what you declare of the place whence 
you come, which is toward the rising sun, and of the great lord 
who is your King, we must surely believe that he is our natural 
lord.” 

Such were the superstitious opinions amongst the most civilized 
of all the Indian nations at the period of the conquest. It is not 
surprising therefore to find the other nomadic, predatory hordes, — 
whose ferocity was not so keen as that of their northern kindred, 
but had been tempered and softened in some degree by the genial 
climate of the tropics,—soon yielding to the superior will of a 


30 AGRICULTURISTS — TRADITIONARY HABITS ADHERED TO. 


masculine race, eager, not only for gold, but for the establishment 
of estates which were in fact principalities, and whose beneficial 
improvement required the employment of large bodies of continual 
and compulsory laborers. The Indians afforded the staple of this 
stock at once. The conquest rooted out all their old institutions by 
violence. Their government and laws were overthrown by force; 
their religion was changed by power; their graven idols, the ma- 
terial emblems of their gods, were ground to dust; their social sys- _ 
tem was completely overturned; and thus, perfectly annihiliated as 
a nation, in politics, theology, and domestic life or habits, they 
were, in the end, but wretched outcasts in their own land. 

The Indians may therefore be regarded as somewhat prepared by 
degradation for the system of repartunientos, which, as we have 
already seen in the historical part of this work, was instituted im- 
mediately after the conquest. 

The aborigines throughout Mexico have been devoted as a class 
to agricultural labors. Immediately after the conquest the Spaniards 
forced them to toil in the mines as well as in the fields; but as soon 
as a race of mixed blood was found to replace these original la- 
borers in the bowels of the earth, the native Indian escaped to 
wilder districts where there were no mines, or where his services 
were required on the surface of the earth. Besides this, since the 
revolution, labor has been somewhat more free than before that 
epoch. The Indian, if not bound to the estate, by the slavery of 
debt, as we shall see hereafter, has the right to do what he pleases, 
and consequently he selects that labor which will give him support 
with least fatigue in a country whose soil is almost spontaneously 
productive. 

The Mexican Indian, may therefore be generally designated as 
an agriculturist. A few of them engage in the manufacture of cer- 
tain elegant fabrics of wool and cotton; in some of the wnitatiwe 
arts, in which they greatly excel; and in the formation of utensils 
for domestic use. 

In the field, the Indian executes all the labor, — sometimes in 
the midst of the great plantations of sugar, cotton, coffee, corn, to- 
bacco, wheat, and barley — or, at others, in the midst of the beau- 
tiful gardens for which some parts of the republic are celebrated. 
In all these positions his labor is faithfully performed ; — but he is 
the enemy of all changes in the modes or utensils of his work. 
He prefers the old system of drawing water for irrigation; the old 
system of rooting the earth with the Arab stake instead of the 
American plough ; the old system of carrying offal, stones, or what- 


IMPROVIDENCE — SUPERSTITION — DRUNKENNESS. 31 


ever is to be removed from his fields, in bags, instead of in barrows 
or carts; and the old system of bearing every burden, no matter 
how onerous, on his shoulders instead of a dray or a wagon. It 
offends him to speak of changes, which he regards as unrighteous 
innovations. His character, like that of the Chinese, is one of 
excessive tenacity for old customs. After three centuries of con- 
stant intercourse with strange races, he still segregates himself from 
the foreigner, and, nestling in his native village, keeps aloof from 
the Spaniard. He speaks his hereditary language; clings to his 
old habits ; and, — according to the report of reliable travellers, — 
worships, occasionally in private, his ancestral idols. In the capi- 
tal, garlands which have been secretly suspended on the images by 
Indians, are still sometimes found around the hideous Aztec di- 
vinities preserved in the court yard of the University. ‘ You gave 
us three very good gods ’’ — said an Indian once to a respectable 
Catholic curate, —‘‘ yet you might as well have left us a few of 
our own!” 

Grave, taciturn and distrustful, — types, in manners, of a crushed 
and conquered race, — the Indians of Mexico, wear a sombre look 
and demeanor, accompanied by an air of evident submissiveness. 
It is rare to find them merry, except at the end of harvest on the large 
estates, when an annual festival is prepared, in which they are ac- 
customed to unite with great zest. They have other periods of 
cessation from toil, such as the Sabbath day, the feasts of the pa- 
tron saints of their village or parish church. Upon these occasions 
their devotion to the externals of religion is exhibited by a lavish 
expense in articles which they imagine may contribute to the honor 
or glory of their spiritual protector in heaven. In order to cele- 
brate the occasion with due decorum, according to their simple 
ideas, they not only spend whatever money they happen to possess 
at the moment, but pledge themselves, in advance, at the haciendas, 
for the loan of sums which they must repay by future labor. The 
result is that these superstitious frivolities consume a large share of 
tre Indian’s substance; and, notwithstanding his economy and 
trugality, he and his family are obliged to spend the greater part of 
the year in misery, in recompense for the rockets, fire crackers, 
music, wax candles, and flowers, which he purchased on the Festi- 
val of his Santo. In addition to these ecclesiastical costs, we must 
not omit his personal expenses, for the Indian does not forget 
his bodily condition whilst he pays attention to his spiritual wants. 
Liquor and gambling, fill up the occasional pauses in the pious 
ceremonials, so that after the Indian has finished his religious ser- 


ae INDIAN WOMEN. 


vices and his dinner for the day, it is quite likely that he is pre- 
pared to creep into a hovel or shelter with his family, where they 
may sleep off the debauch that universally finishes these ecclesias- 
tical functions. Similar wild indulgences are permitted among 
them at marriages, baptisms and interments, and in consequence of 
this thriftlessness, these miserable wretches are never able either to 
leave property to their offspring or to afford them an education by 
which they may improve their lot in life. 

The Indian woman is the true and faithful companion of her 
husband’s fortunes. She works incessantly at her appropriate 
tasks. She grinds the corn for the tortillias and atolé of the family, 
and carries them to her husband wherever he is at work; she 
weaves, in her rude manner, all the materials of cotton or wool that 
are worn by her household; she makes the garments of her spouse 
and children; she keeps the domestic premises in order without 
an assistant; nor does she cease, for a moment, to nourish and 
watch her offspring during their infancy. If her husband departs 
to another district, or is enlisted as a soldier, she straps her pack 
and her youngest child on her back, and accompanies her liege 
lord, whilst a train of their mutual descendants, ‘‘ small by degrees 
and beautifully less, ”’ follows in their rear. 

We have said that the Indians are frugal in their food and eco- 
nomical in their dress, for in reality, their meals commonly consist 
only of cereal products, and, especially, of corn. Atolé, tortillias, 
Chili peppers and frijoles, are sufficient to support them. They do 
not eat flesh habitually, and yet they are healthy and robust, nor is 
it extraordinary to see individuals among them who attain the ad- 
vanced age of more than of ninety years. 

Their occasional indulgence in drunkenness, disgusting and inju- 
rious as it is at the moment, does not generally destroy the consti- 
tutions of these hardy laborers, whose subsequent compulsory tem- 
perance, not only in drink but in food, soon repairs the momentary 
inroads of a day’s debauch. 

The dress of both men and women is the simplest and the 
cheapest possible. In the state of ignorance and abjection in 
which this race has been so long held, it is not easy to conceive 
whether their intellectual faculties might be again aroused. In 
some of the colleges of Mexico, individuals have applied them- 
selves with great care, have received classical educations, and 
made remarkable progress even in the sciences, in some of which 
they excelled. But generally speaking, these instances may be 
regarded as remarkable exceptions. The Indian, as we have 


crik 


J it 
\ 


Sor Bret Ac 


THE 


INDIANS Or 


\ 


SERVILE CONDITION — LOCAL ADHESIVENESS. 33 


before observed, when he quits the agricultural field, exhibits 
most talent in the imitative arts. ‘The instruments and mate- 
rials he uses are of the simplest and rudest kind, and, although 
the imitations produced by him are wonderfully accurate, yet 
they want that lively variety which is only produced by vivid 
imaginations. 

Upon the plantations the Indians are in reality slaves, notwith- 
standing the Mexican laws prohibit slavery. This condition is 
produced chiefly by two causes. The Mexican Indian who cher- 
ishes, as we have seen, a remarkable devotion to his old habits, 
customs, utensils and implements, is gifted with an equal tenacity 
or adhesiveness for the place of his birth. Nomadic as were his 
ancestors, the modern Mexican Indian is no wanderer. ‘The idea 
of emigration, even to another state or district, never originates in 
his brain, or is tolerated if proposed to him as a voluntary act. So 
helpless is his condition if placed beyond the limits of his habitual 
neighborhood or hereditary haunts, that he feels himself perfectly 
lost, abandoned and cast off, if compelled to change either his resi- 
dence or his occupation. He has no variety of resources. He 
knows nothing of alternatives. ‘The operations of his mind, as 
well as of his hand, are perfectly mechanical. The utter helpless- 
ness of such an individual, if suddenly transferred from the midst 
of his companions and all the scenes of his life-long associations or 
duties, may be easily conceived, and consequently the greatest 
punishment that a haciendado, or Mexican planter, can inflict upon 
his Indian serf is to expel him from the estate upon which he and 
his ancestors have worked from time immemorial. When other 
punishments, which elsewhere would be thought severe, fail to 
produce reform or amendment in the Indian’s conduct, it usually 
happens, that the serious threat of expulsion from the estate, made 
by the owner himself, or his authorised representative, to the na- 
tive, reduces the refractory individval to subjection. Thus it is, 
that this peculiar territorial and local adhesiveness contributes to 
making the Indian’s condition not only menial but servile. 

The second cause may be found in the habits of wild and ex- | 
travagant indulgence which we have already described. These 
licentious outbursts of recklessness create a pecuniary bond between 
the proprietor and his laborer. The Indian becomes his debtor. 
It is the policy of the landholder to establish this relation between 
himself and the Indian, and consequently he affords him every fa- 
cility to sell himself in advance, even for life, to his estate. The 
Indian, is thus at least completely mortgaged to the landed _pro- 

' E 


34 PEONAGE — WHIPPING — PLANTER-LIFE. 


prietor, and as that personage usually possesses considerable in- 
fluence in his neighborhood, the laborer finds it extremely difficult 
or nearly impossible to enforce his freedom even by appeals to the 
legal authorities. Such is the origin and system of peonage, which 
still curses Mexico although the repartumentos and slavery have 
been abolished by fundamental laws. 3 

We have observed that there are other punishments of the In- 
dians resorted to on Mexican plantations for trifling faults or mis- 
demeanors, besides the great and final calamity of expulsion. 
They are fined and they are flogged. ‘‘ Looking into the corri- 
dor,’ says Mr. Stephens, in his work on Yucatan, “‘ we saw a 
poor Indian on his knees, on the pavement, with his arms clasped 
around the knees of another Indian, so as to present his back fairly 
to the lash. At every blow he rose on one knee and sent forth a 
piercing cry, he seemed struggling to retain it, but it burst forth in 
spite of all his efforts. His whole bearing showed the subdued 
character of the present Indians, and with the last stripe the ex- 
pression of his face seemed that of thankfulness for not getting 
more. Without uttering a word, he crept to the major-domo, took 
his hand, kissed it, and walked away. No sense of degradation 
crossed his mind. Indeed, so humbled is this once fierce people 
that they have a proverb of their own: ‘‘ Los Indios no oyien sino 
por las nalgas,’’ — ‘‘ The Indians only hear through their backs.” 


This hereditary condition or relation between the Indian and 
the original Spanish races has acted and re-acted for their mutual 
degradation. With a large population under his control, for all 
purposes of labor and menial toil, the Spaniard, of whatever class, 
found himself entirely free from the necessity of manual labor or 
mechanical pursuits. Notwithstanding this immunity from bodily 
toil, the native of Castile did not devote the leisure he enjoyed, 
whilst the Indians were working for him, either to the improve- 
ment of his mind, or the preparation of philanthropic plans for the 
amelioration of his servant’s lot. A mere physical life of personal 
indulgence, or an avaricious devotion to the rapid acquisition of 
fortune, absorbed the whole time of these planters, who lived in 
almost utter seclusion amid the lonely wastes of their large terri- 
torial possessions. ‘The planter who resides in a populous nation, 
or who is enabled to visit easily the capitals of commerce, literature, 
and art, is a man, who, from his personal independence, culture, and 
wealth, is usually in cur own country to be envied for the peculiar 
privileges which his station affords him. But in Mexico, the posi 


PLANTER-LIFE —ITS SOLITUDE AND RESULTS. 35 


tion and education of the planter, if he lives constantly on his estate, 
—which is not universally the case, —are altogether different from 
those of the North American land-holder. The Mexican possesses 
few or none of those social and intellectual qualities that have 
been cultivated by the North American in the best colleges and 
circles of his country; nor does he enjoy equal facilities of inter- 
communication between the cities or rural districts of Mexico. 
The immense size of his plantation which sometimes extends 
several leagues in length and breadth, necessarily disperses instead 
of congregating a populous neighborhood. ‘He is master of all 
he surveys, — he is lord of the fowl and the brute,”’ but his domin- 
ion is a solitary and cheerless one. Few, and irregular posts 
rarely bring him the news of what occurs in the great world. 
Visits are seldom and ceremoniously paid. He must find within 
himself the constant springing source of vivacity and of an ambi- 
tious desire for progress, or he must subside into mere animal exis- 
tence. The latter is unfortunately in most instances the natural 
result, and it is therefore not at all astonishing to find Mexican 
planters or their mayordomos devoting all their energies to the 
maintenance of the servile system we have described, whilst their 
statute-book and constitution profess to have abolished slavery. 

Whilst such is the effect upon the character of the master or 
his representative, it is natural to suppose that the character of the 
servant will be equally degraded by the want of those new ideas 
with which the constant refreshing intercourse of society ventilates 
the mind. The Indian knows no world but that bounded by his 
horizon. Slavery, when involuntary, may even be respected in the 
sufferer, but the Indian who becomes a slave in spite of law, by 
religious superstition, loathsome vices, and time-hallowed servility, 
sinks far below the level of the African, who is sober, careful, faith- 
ful to his master and his family, and either from imitation, or a 
degree of natural dignity, seeks to acquire respectability among his 
fellow slaves. 

“It is hardly possible,” says Muhlenpfordt, “to judge of the 
true character and intellectual capacity of the Indian at a time when 
he has but just partially recovered his rights as man, and has had 
little opportunity of giving independent culture to his mental facul- 
ties. Though the civic oppression under which the Spaniards and 
Creoles held all the copper colored race and the colored people gen- 
erally before the revolution, has, for the most part disappeared, yet 
their emancipation has, as yet, only nominally taken place. Hier- 
archial oppression has yet hardly decreased, and the clergy, both 


36 MUHLENPFORDT’S CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. 


the inferior secular priests and the monks who have the greatest 
influence over the Indians, find their account in declining to pro- 
mote, if they do not positively retard, their intellectual develop- 
ment. Time only can inform us whee advantages will accrue to 
the Indians from the new order of things. Up to this period the 
introduction of the boasted civilization of Europe, as well as of the 


Catholic religion, has been of but trifling benefit to them, and only | 


a trace here and there of progress to an amelioration of their con- 
dition is to be remarked. 

‘¢’The Mexican Indian of the present day is generally grave and 
taciturn, and almost sullen, when not excited by music and intoxi- 
cating drinks to loquacity and pleasure. This serious character 
may be remarked even in the children, who appear more knowing 
at the age of five or six, than those of northern Europeans at that 
of nine or ten. But this appearance of steadiness is by no means 
consequent on a quicker development of mind, and the looks of 
these young people, dejected and void of all the cheerfulness and 
confidence of children, have nothing that gladdens the observer. 
Gruffness and reserve appear to be essential features of the Indian 
character, and it cannot, I think, be assumed that these qualities 
were implanted in them only by the long oppression that weighed 
down the Mexican race; first under their native rulers, and after- 
wards under the Spaniards; inasmuch as they occur among the 
aborigines almost universally throughout America, even when these 
have never suffered any curtailment of political liberty. To that 
cause may be rather attributed the stubbornness and _ selfishness 
which constitute a striking trait in the character of the present In- 
dians. It is almost impossible to move any Indian to do a thing 
which they have resolved not to do. Vehemence, threats, even 
corporal punishment, are of as little avail as the offer of gold or 
reward ; persuasion, coaxing, entreaties help as little. The Mexi- 
can Indian loves to give an appearance of mystery and importance 
to his most indifferent actions. If stirred up by weighty interests, 
he breaks his accustomed silence, and speaks with energy but never 
with fire. Jokes are as rare with him as raillery and laughter. I 
never heard an Indian laugh heartily, even when excited by spirit- 
uous liquors. His uncommon hardness of character allows him 
long to conceal the passions of indignation and vengeance. No 
sign betrays externally the fire that rages within until it suddenly 
breaks out with uncontrollable violence. In this condition the 
Indian is most likely inclined to commit the most dreadful cruelties 
and the most fearful crimes. The Mexican aborigines bear with 


F) 


i i a ene a Si 


ee oe a 


INDIAN TRIBES AND RACES IN MEXICO. 37 


the greatest patience the torments which the whites were formerly 
and are still inclined to indulge against them. They oppose to 
these a cunning which they dexterously hide under a semblance of 
indifference and stupidity. Despite their long slavery; despite 
every effort which has been employed to rob them of their historical 
recollections, they have by no means forgotten their former great- 
ness. ‘They know right well that they were once sole lords of the 
land, and that those Creoles who are so fond of calling themselves 
Americans, are but the sons and heirs of their oppressors. I have 
myself frequently heard Indians, when their ordinary reserve has 
been overcome by spirituous liquors, declare that they were the true 
masters of the country, that all others were mere foreign intruders, 
and that if the Creoles could expel the Spaniards they had a far 
better right to expel the Creoles. May the latter be taught by 
their own acuteness to grant the Indians, while it is yet time, the 
practical exercise of these civic rights theoretically conceded to 
them, for the revolt of the copper colored race would indeed pre- 
sent a fearful spectacle !” 


INDIAN TRIBES OR RACES IN MEXICO. 
IN THE STATE OF YUCATAN. 


1. Mayas. 
IN THE STATES OF CHIAPAS AND TABASCO. 
2 Teochiapanécos, 3 Zoques, 4 Cendales, 
5 Mames. 
IN THE STATE OF OAJACA. 

6 Zapotécas, 12 Chochos, 18 Soltécos, 
7 Mixtecos, 13 Chaténos, 19 Trigues, 
8 Mixes, — 14 Huabes, 20 Pabicos, 
9 Chinanutécos, 15 Huatequimanes, 21 Amutsagos, 
10 Chontales, 16 Izcatécos, 22 Zoques, 
11 Cuicatécos, 17 Almoloyas, a few. 23 Aztécos. 

IN THE STATES OF MEXICO, PUEBLA AND VERA CRUZ. 
24 Aztécos, 27 Tlapanécos, 29 Huastécos, 
25 'Totonaques, 28 Mixtécos, 30 Cuitlatecos. 


26 Popolicas, 
IN THE STATE OF QUERETARO. 


31 Otomés, 32 Chichimecas, and a few Aztécos. 
IN THE STATE OF MICHOACAN. 

33 Tarrascos, 34 Otomeés. 
IN THE STATE OF GUANAJUATO. 

35 Pamos, 37 Samues, 39 Guamanes, 


36 Captces, 38 Mayolias, 40 Guachichiles. 


38 INDIAN TRIBES AND RACES IN MEXICO. 


IN THE STATE OF JALISCO. 


41 Cazcanes, 43 Guamanes, 45 Matlacingos, 
42 Guachichiles, 44 Tenoxquines, 46 Jaliscos. 


STATES OF SAN LUIS POTOSI, NEW LEON AND TAMAULIPAS. 


47 Chichimecas, Aztecos, or Tlascaltecas. 
IN THE STATES OF DURANGO AND CHIHUAHUA. 
48 Tepehuanés, 52 Sicurabas, 56 Cocoyames, 
A9 Topias, 53 Himas, 57 Yanos, 
50 Acaxis, 54 Huimis, 58 Tarahumares. 
51 Xiximes, 55 Acotlanes, 
IN THE STATE OF SINALOA. 
59 Coras, 61 Hueicolhues, 63 Cinaloas, 
60 Nayarites, 62 Tubaras, 64 Cahitas. 
IN THE STATE OF SONORA. 
65 Mayos, 85 Sonoras, 105 Apaches-mimbre- 5 
66 Zuaques, 86 Eudebes, Nos, : 
67 Hiaquis, 87 Opatas, 106 Apaches—Chirica- : 
68 Yaquis, 88 Seres, ouls, E 
69 Guazare, ’ 89 Tiburones, 107 Yabipais or Yabi- 4 
70 Ahome, 90 Pipos-altos pias, 3 
71 Ocoromi, 91 Papagos or Papa- 108 Jalchedumes, j 
72 Teguéca, hi-Ootam, 109 Juniguis, 
73 Tepahue, 92 Yumas, 110 Yamagas, 
TA Zoe, 93 Cucapachas, 111 Chemeonahas or 
75 Huite, 94 Coanopas, Chemeguabas, 
76 Guaymas, 95 Cajuenches, 112 Cosninas, 
77 Pimas-bajos, 96 Cutguanes, 113 Moquis, 
78 Mobas, 97 Hoahonémos, 114 Navajos, 
79 Onabas, 98 Bagiépas, 115 Timpachis, 
80 Nures, 99 Quiquimas, 116 Yutas, 
81 Saboribas or Sisi- 100 Cocomaricopas, 117 Tabeguachis 
bolaris, 101 Apaches-tontos 118 Payiches, 
82 Huras, 102 Pimas-gilefios, 119 Talarénos, 
83 Heris, 103 Apaches-gilefios, 120 Raguapuis. 
84 Sabaipures, 104 Nijoras, 
IN OLD CALIFORNIA. 
121 Pericuis, 124 Coras, 128 Utschetas, 
122 Monquis or Men- 125 Cochimas, 129 Vehitis, 
guls, 126 Colimies, 130 Icas. 


123 Guayctras, 127 Laimones, 


TABLE OF CASTES IN MEXICO. 39 


IN NEW CALIFORNIA. 


131 Rumsenes, 134 Achastlies, 136 Salses, 
132 Escelenes, 135 Matalanes, 137 Quirotes. 
133 Eclemaches, 


IN NEW MEXICO AND PART OF TEXAS. 


138 Keras, 144 Jetans, 149 Nanahas, 

139 Piras, 145 Tetans or Tetaus, 150 Apaches-Jlaneros, 
140 Xumanas, 146 Yutas, | 151 Lipans, 

141 Zuras, 147 Kiaways, 152 Faraones, 

142 Pecuris, 148 Apaches, 153 Mescaleros. 


143 Cumanches, 


The following table exhibits, in separate groups, the varieties of 
parentage and blood, forming the castes in Mexico and through- 
out Spanish America: ; 


TABLE OF CASTES. 


1. ORIGINAL RACES. 
PARENTS. 
Whit European whites are called gachupies or chapetones. 
N€- ) Whites, born in the colonies, are called creoles. 


Negro. 
Indian. 

2. CASTES OF WHITE RACE. 
PARENTS. CHILDREN. 


White father and Negro mother, Mulatto. 
White Ge Tinvdam 56 Mestizo. 
White ee Mulatto <“ Quarteron. 
Creole, ( only distinguishable 
White ee Mestiza §¢ from the white by a pale 
brown complexion. ) 
White - China ce Chino-blanco. 
White <¢ ss Quarterona Quintero. 
White ee Quintera ‘“ White. 


3. CASTES OF NEGRO RACE. 


PARENTS. CHILDREN. 
Negro father and Mulatto mother, Zambo-negro. 
Negro ee Mestiza ‘© © Mulatto-oscuro. 


Negro oe China: ‘¢ —— Zambo-chino. 
Negro *¢ Zamba ‘* Zambo and Negro, (perfectly 
black. ) 


_ Negro cs Quarterona ¢ = ark Mulatto. 


or Quintera 


40 TABLE OF CASTES IN MEXICO. 


4. CASTES OF INDIAN RACE. 


PARENTS. CHILDREN. 
Indian father and Negro mother, Chino. 
Indian <¢ — Mulatto “  Chino-oscuro. 
Indian (¢  Mestiza ‘ Mestizo-claro, often very beau- 
tiful. | 
- Indian ¢ China “ ~ Chino-cholo. 
Indian ‘6 Zamba )=6S§ ~~ Zambo-claro. 
Indian =“  China-cholo Indian, with short frizzily hair. 
Indian oc fghevierenia Brown Meztizo. 
or Quintera 
5. MULATTO CORRUPTION. 
PARENTS. CHILDREN. 
Mulatto father and Zamba mother, Zambo, (a miserable race. ) 
Mulatto sc Miestizar*¢ Chino, (rather clear race.) 


Mulatto co * China, . ° Chino, (rather dark. ) 


Besides these specified castes there are several others not dis- 
tinguished by particular names ; such, for instance, as the produce 
of unions between the Mexican Indians or Spaniards and the 
people of the East Indian continent or Philipines, numbers of 
whom came over during the old viceroyal government. The best 
criterion for judging of the purity of blood, is the hair of the 
women, which is much less deceiving than their complexion. The 
short woolly hair, or coarse Indian locks, may always be detected 
on the head or on the back of the neck. This tabular statement 
exhibits at a glance the mongrel corruptions of the human race in 
Mexico, and presents an interesting subject for students of physi- 


ology and ethnology. ! 


1 See Tschudi’s Peru— American Edition, p. 80, and Muhlenpfordt — Die Re- 
publik Mejico, vol. 1; — Indians. 


SS 
> SS 


i ae = Ss 
See SAL 


HACIENDADO. 


CHAP Tike at El. 


PopuLATION. 
POPULATION — CENSUS. — TABLES OF POPULALION. — RELATIVE 
DIVISION OF RACES. — RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 


— RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS. 


Ir is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has 
ever been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been 
persistently pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens 
and collect such statistical data as may always be easily gathered 
by persons engaged in this important task. The irregularity of the 
central or executive power; the instability of all governments 
since the establishment of independence ; the intestine quarrels, not 
only in the capital but in the departments or states, have all contri- 
buted to, and even partially compelled, this neglect of a great na- 
tional duty. 

In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we 
are obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the partial 
enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experi- 
enced statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall ex- 
hibit all the most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexi- 
can works or in the writings of reliable authors : — 


VARIANCES BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT CALCULATIONS AND CEN- 
SUSES OF THE PopuLATION oF MeExIco. 


Years. No. of Inhabitants. 
1793—Census of the Viceroy Revilla-Gigedo, including 


Vera Cruz and Guadalajara, according to an 


estimate in 1803, . : ‘ 5,270,029 
1803—Geographico- political tables of New Shain, 5,764,731 
1810—Semanario economico of Mexico, : : 5,810,005 
1820—Navarro’s Memorial on the population of the 

kingdom of New Spain, . ; : . 6,122,354 

Calculation of the first Congress, : : 6,204,000 


1831—Actual census of the Mexican ao Sree 
ed by oe : : - 6,382,264 


42 TABLES OF POPULATION. 


Years. No. of Inhabitants. 
1824—Hon. J. R. Poinsett, . : : : 6,500,000 
1825—Humboldt, about, ; : . 7,000,000 
1838—Report of Wonmiicnes of Chane of Deputies, 7 ‘009, 120 
1834—Galvan’s Mexican Calendar, : : é a 134, 292 
1836—Notices of the states and territories of the Mexi- 

can nation, ; ; . 1,843,132 
1830—Mr. Burkhardt —a Gann aor 7,996,000 


1842—An estimate made as the basis for the election of 
a Congress, (exclusive of Texas, ) : L VOLS 09 

In the year 1838, Sefior Jose Gomez de la Cortina, — ex-Conde 
de la Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, pub- 
lished a carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, 
in the 1st No. of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geogra- 
phy and Statistics of the Mexican Republic ; and his opinion was 
that the number of inhabitants greatly exceeded any of the above 
amounts. By observing the increase of population in different 
periods of five years, he considered it satisfactorily proved by the 
Tablas Geographico-politicas, of 1803, that the augmentation, in 
favorable years, was at the rate 14 per cent. By applying this 
ratio to the census of the Tablas, which gave in 1803, 5,764,731 
inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about 105,000 yearly ; 
and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the 46 inter- 
vening years, we find in 1850 an increase of 4,830,000, or a grand 
total of 10,594,731. 

In the year 1842, however, when an estimate was made of a 
basis of population, upon which to found a call for a Congress to 
form a new constitution under the plan of Tacubaya, in 23 Depart- 
ments or States and Territories, exclusive of Texas, the govern- 
ment calculated that there were 7,015,509 inhabitants. 


TaBLE OF POPULATION IN 1842. 


Departments. Population. 
Mexico, . : 3 3 : / 1,389,502 
Jalisco, : : : ¥ : : 679,311 
Puebla, . ‘ ; , F . 661,902 
Yucatan, . , , 4 : . 508,948 
Guanajuato, . ; i ; : . 512,606 
Oajaca, +. : fut : ., , 600,278 
Michoacan, . : : ‘ ; . 497,906 
San Luis Potosi, ; y ‘ ‘ 321,840 
Zacatecas, A : j ‘ : ~ 273,575 


Vera Cruz, . , ; : : E 254,380 


RELATIVE DIVISION OF RACES. 43 


Departments. Population 
Durango, : : . : : . 162,618 
Chihuahua, : : ; : : 147,600 
Sinaloa, . Q 3 4 : : . 147,000 
Chiapas, . , : : ‘ ~ 141,206 
Sonora, . : ‘ ‘ ‘ . 124,000 
Queretaro, . : ‘ : : 3 120,560 
Nuevo Leon, . 5 : ; 4 . 101,108 
Tamaulipas, ; : vine #4 - 100,068 
Coahuila, : : : ; ; » 19,340 
Aguas Calientes, : : 69,698 
Tabasco, . F ; : : : . 63,580 
Nuevo Mexico, . : 5 : : 57,026 
Californias, . : ; F ; . 38,4389 

7,015,509 
New Mexico, 57,026 
Upper California, since 25,000 
Deduet for Midd to the United 
States. 82,026 — 82,026 
Estimated actual population in 1842, : . 6,933,483 


Add 10 per cent. for the probable increase in 7 years 693,348 


Proximate actual population in 1850, : 7,626,831 


This population may be relatively classed among races and castes 
as follows: 


4,354,886 : Indians. 

1,100,000 . . Whites. 

2,165,345 ; Meztizos, Zambos, Mulattoes, &c. 
6,600 . . Negroes. 

7,626,831 


As Mexico, since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, 
possesses 798,402 square miles, this will give nine inhabitants and 
a fraction, to the square mile. 

From these calculations we deduce some very important facts as 
to the physical and intellectual condition of Mexico, which are very 
significant in the illustration of history. It appears that the total 
number of pure whites in the republic, is, in all probability, not 
more than 1,100,000; while the Indians, Negroes, Zambos, Mulat- 
toes, Meztizos, and all the mixed bloods, amount to 6,526,831. 
During our residence in Mexico we ascertained from reliable au- 
thority that among the Indians and negroes but two per cent. could 


44 RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 


read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty 
per cent. were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have: 
87,229 Indians and Negroes able to read and write. 

653,069 Whites and mixed castes able to read and write ; 
or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and nine- 
ty-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the 
simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a 
half millions. ‘These are startling statistics in regard to the citi- 
zens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically 
based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule ; 
and, when considered in connexion with the historical details pre-. 
sented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the dis- 
tracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of 
her intellectual darkness. ! 

One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics 
would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the 
tierras calientes — or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or 
cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from 
data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess 
of births in the warm regions or terras calientes was 17%, per 100, 
over the trerras frias. 

He gives the following actual statistics in evidence : 

Ist. Result of the general census of the department of Zaca- 
TECAS since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population 
therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes : — 


Years. Total population. Increase of population biennially. 

1824 . : » 247,295 } 25,606 

BPG seni AS nos DURO01 

1828 274,537 | eae 

ie. |. sonnet ee 

piesa) it! , «3iago1t 24,0 

Tee es 6, 5: B81 Sts 17,660 

2d. In 1836, after the separation of the portion of Aguas Calien- 
tes, this department had : ‘ 264,505 inhabitants. 

In June, 1838, it had. : : i i21as0to Be 
Increase in one year and a half, . : 9,070 


1 It is just to Mexico to state that Cortina, in the article previously referred to, 
estimates the number of persons able to read and write, to be much larger; but his 
calculations are doubtless made with the partiality of a native, and are based ona 
limited observation of city life, the army and municipal prisons. 


RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS. 45 


3d. In the period from 1st of January, 1837 to 30th of June, 
1838, there were born in the said department, 21,941 
Died in the said department, ; é 12,871 


Increase of population, . : pert 9,070 


Ath. In the department of Oajaca in 1834, it was calculated that 
there were : : : : . 457,033 inhabitants. 


In December, 1838, . : : : 500,278 oe 


Increase in four years, . : : . 43,245 
RESULTS. 


Maximum of annual increase of population in Oajaca, 15,000 


Minimum sc ¢ ce Ge 6,000 
Maximum oe es ot Zacatecas 12,000 
Minimum of ee ee Ke 500 


Of not less importance are the investigations upon the excess 
observed in one sex over the other. Before the appearance of 
Humboldt’s work it was the opinion that in the New World nature 
did not follow the same law of equilibrium in the difference be- 
tween the sexes as in Europe, and especially that in the tropical 
regions, the number of females exceeded greatly that of the males. 
Baron Humboldt combated this notion and demonstrated its error. 
He presents in his political essay upon New Spain a table of the 
population of eight Intendencies, in which it appears that out of 
1,352,835 inhabitants there were 687,935 males and 664,900 fe- 
-males, which establishes a relative proportion of 100 to 95. In 
the Tablas Geografico politicas, already cited, it is expressly said 
that in New Spain, in the Intendencies of the tierras frias, or cold 
regions, as well as in those of the tierras calientes, or hot regions, 
the population inclines to a preponderance of males. Don Fernando 
_ Navarro y Noriega gives in his tables of population 71,642 more 
males than females; and, in the account of the taxes made by order 
of the government in 1781, it appears that the excess is still in 
favor of males, though in a much less proportion than assigned by 
Baron Humboldt. We present the following table, prepared in 
Mexico for the purpose of throwing more light on the subject: 


46 RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS. 


TABLE OF POPULATION IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS IN DIFFERENT 
YEARS —RELATIVE EXCEESS — BIRTHS AND DEATHS. 


Departments, States, or Cantons yrijes. Excess Excess 


Yeats: of States. Females. males. females. 
1829 New Mexico : : ~~ 21,799... 21.640 159 
1819 Alta California . ; - 10,979... S07 ei 872 
1830 Do... do. : : . 12,473. 100119 tee 
1832 NuevoLeon . : 49,571 48,601 970 
1829 San Luis Potosi.—See follear- 
ing table. 
1832 Oajaca 5 : : » 237,127 247,887 .. . 10,760 
1823 Michoacan : : 178,052 187,028 . =..." S916 
Canton of Vera coe : ..« 29,851: -SE69a e329. ee 
| “rot Wlisantla’ \. ' 2,451” 265Si. ee 207 
H ‘of Papantla é A279 4,225 54 
18319, te of Tampico. . ‘11,112 "06s 
|. of Jalacingo . \ ./ 47,816 8,046 een 
[ “of Jalapa : ; 19,837 22,867. ..- 3,030 
1826 Guanajuato . : . 165,896 179,288 . . 18,392 
1834 Chihuahua . : 75,303 69,879 5,424 
1838 Tamaulipas . » 49,235 45,460 3,775 
1838 Aguas calientes. ; 33,661 36,0382. . 2371 


1831 Jalisco.—See following auies 
1838 Zacatecas. “ cs «<6 


1821 Tamaulipas . : - 84,3856 33,428 928 

18383 New Mexico . : : 31,012 26,164 4,848 
Births. Deaths. Excess. 
2 a n = 2 ‘a 
c 5 c Fak eh 
= om = Fy = & 


1829 San Luis Potosi—first 

six months . ., 4,882 5,159 _ 2,029 8865 421 
1830 Jalisco—whole year 14,307 13,905 13,194 11,972 820 
1837 Zacatecas—18 mo’s. 10,935 11,006 6,876 6,495 48 
1834! State of Mexico, ex- 

cept 2 prefectures 18,410 18,804 cholera this year. 


1830 Guanajuato —— whole 
year. : - 14,699 14,252 7,235 7,511 276 


It may, generally, be said that the excess of one sex over the 
other is in inverse proportion to the latitude; or, in other words, 
that, as we advance from the equator, the excess of females over 


1 The cholera ravaged Mexico this year, and consequently it would be unfair to 
use the deaths as a basis of calculation at that period. 


RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS. AT 


males decreases, until the reverse occurs as the degrees of latitude 
augment. We must, however, except from this rule the depart- 
ment or state of Tamaulipas, in which the constancy with which 
nature sustains the excess of males, is somewhat extraordinary. 
The most ancient document possessed upon the subject, relative to 
this State, is of the year 1793, and from this we discover that, from 
that year until 1807, 124 more males than females were born there- 
in, and that 30 more females than men died during the period— 


More females than males are born More males than females are born 


in the following States, in the or- in the following States, accord- 

der in which they are placed: ing to the order in which they 
are placed: 

1. Vera Cruz—greatest number. 1. Alta California—greatest No. 

2. Oajaca. 2. New Mexico. 

3. Puebla. 3. Sonora. 

4. Michoacan. 4, Chihuahua. 

5. Guanajuato. 5. Coahuila. 

6. Jalisco. 6. New Leon.’ 


1 See Boletin No. 1, del Instituto Nacional de Geogr@fia y Estadistica, Mejico, 
1839, 


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INDIANS OF THE TIERRA CALIENTE. 


CHAPTER IV. 


AGRICULTURE — AGRICULTURAL PRopUCTS 


AGRICULTURE — DRY AND RAINY SEASONS. — IRRIGATION — YIELD 
OF CORN LANDS. — COLONIAL RESTRICTIONS. — COLONIAL DE- 
PENDENCE — BAD INTERCOMMUNICATION — ARRIEROS. —— CORN 
LANDS — DIFFERENT KINDS OF CORN IN MEXICO — MODE OF 
CULTIVATION — PRODUCTION — VARIOUS USES OF CORN. — BA- 
NANA — MAINOC—RICE.—THE OLIVE — VINE —CHILE PEPPER 
— TOMATO — FRIJOL — MAGUEY.—MAGUEY ESTATES. —MAK- 
ING PULQUE. — ALOES — CACTI. 


Sun, seasons, temperature, soils and moisture are the chief ele- 
ments of agricultural success or failure, according as they are bene- 
ficially harmonized or unfortunately disunited. In our geological 
and geographical descriptions we have already indicated the rapid 
changes of temperatyre in Mexico experienced by rising gradually 
from the sea shore to the summit of the table land, and passing 
through the trerras calientes, templadas and frias. This is the 
origin of the variety of Mexican productions and the reason why 
the pine and the palm are encountered upon the same parallel of 
latitude ; but the fertility of Mexico is very much governed by the 
moisture with which it is annually favored, and for which it is 
obliged to rely chiefly on the clouds. The Mexicans are not ac- 
customed to separate the year as we do into the four seasons of 
spring, summer, autumn and winter, for the variation of tempera- 
ture scarcely authorizes such marked distinctions of climate; yet 
they divide the twelve months into two grand divisions of E/ Es- 
tio — or the dry season, and La Estacion de las aguas, or the rainy 
season. The latter commences about May and lasts usually four 
months, whilst the dry season comprises the remainder of the year. 

The curving shores of Mexico along the gulf and interior high- 
lands gather and hem in an immense body of vapor, which is car- 
ried on by the trade winds and condensed against the cold and lofty 
inland mountain peaks which rise above the limit of perpetual con- 
gealation. This occurs during the dry season whilst the sun is at 
the south. But when the power of that luminary increases as it 
advances northward, and until it has long turned back again on its 
southern course, these vapors are dissolved by the hot intertropical 
air and descend, almost daily, in fertilizing showers. The forma- 


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IRRIGATION — YIELD OF CORN LANDS. 49 


tion of rain clouds and the precipitation of their moisture usually 
begin on the coast near Vera Cruz, and the course of the rain 
storms advances from east to west, inundating the tierra caliente 
along the eastern coast fifteen or twenty days before the table lands 
are moistened. There have been seasons in which it did not begin 
to rain until a month or two after the usual period. In 1802 such 
an event occurred ; and, again in 1826, the vapors did not begin to 
form and descend until the end of July, in consequence of which 
the corn was totally lost. If the rains are withheld beyond the 
middle of June, all the cereal products are either destroyed or suffer 
greatly from the drought. ‘The power of the sun, by that time, 
becomes so great that the ground is scorched and the air filled with 
clouds of dust which seem to gather and concentrate the blazing 
rays, until the falling particles surround or fall upon the traveller 
over the plains as if he were passing through a shower of heated 
cinders. ‘The heat, and the masses of burning dust, are almost 
overpowering not only to vegetable but almost to animal life. 

The agricultural prosperity of Mexico, accordingly, depends 
either largely upon the relative duration of these two seasons, or 
on the power of the landed proprietors to supply the loss of water 
from the clouds, by rrrigatTion derived from the rivers or slender 
streams that meander through the interior of Mexico. Seldom, 
indeed, is the Mexican planter or farmer obliged to complain of 
too much moisture. Between the parallels of 24° and 30° the 
rains are of shorter duration, and the intervals between the showers 
greater. But, fortunately, beyond the 26th°, a copious supply of 
snow, during the winter, compensates for the want of rain at the 
regular season. Irrigation, therefore, is universally resorted to, 
wherever there is an adequate supply of water, and large sums are 
expended by the possessors of the principal estates, in the con- 
struction of acequias, or canals; presas, dams or reservoirs; and 
norias, or water wheels, by which the refreshing element is forced 
up and distributed over the thirsty fields. 


Such is a brief review and summary of the soil and seasons of 
Mexico. The average annual yield of the corn lands throughout 
Mexico is estimated at twenty-five bushels for one. In portions of 
the country, during favorable years, and where the irrigation is 
good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one have been produced. At 
Cholula, near Puebla, the increase is stated at forty for one, while 
at Zelaya, Salamanca, and Santiago, further north, from thirty-five 
to forty are produced on an average of years. In the valley of 

G 


50 COLONIAL RESTRICTIONS. 


Mexico, proper, the yield is from eighteen to twenty ; and even in 
the old possessions of California, it is set down at from fifteen to 
seventeen. The best writers consider, however, that notwithstand- 
ing the extraordinary fertility of their soil, the Mexicans do not 
produce in ratio of quantity, superior crops to the best agricultural 
portions of the United States. 


The agricultural advantages of New Spain were early pointed out 
by some of the colonial authorities to the Spanish Home govern- 
ment; but the very fact of their existence seems to have alarmed the 
Court and to have originated those restrictive laws which, as we have 
shown in our historical narrative, so long ensured the dependence of 
the colony. The King, the Cabinets and the Council of the Indies 
united in believing that if the internal resources of the nation were 
developed, fostered, and placed upon a firm basis, the political as 
well as the industrial independence of America might naturally en- 
sue; and accordingly, these authorities resolved at once to adopt 
the narrow system of restrictions which retained the essentially 
productive power in the hands of Spain. Zumarraga, the first 
bishop and second archbishop of Mexico, addressed urgent letters 
to the Emperor Charles V., exhibiting the agricultural value of the 
country, and solicited laborers, plants, seeds, cattle, and all the 
usual means for the development of Mexican resources. - The Ban- 
dos published in the year 1524, by Cortéz, which are yet preserved 
in the Hospital of Jesus, in the capital, contain wise decrees for 
the encouragement of industry, and prove that the military life of 
the Conqueror had not made him forgetful of his early agricultural 
labors in the West Indies when he first emigrated from Spain. 
But the policy of Spain was constantly declared to be adverse to 
this wholesome and reasonable encouragement. When Luis de 
Velasco, the second of that name who was viceroy in New Spain, 
passed thence to the viceroyalty of Peru, he was instructed by the 
King and Council of the Indies to be careful not to “‘ foster manu- 
factures, nor to allow the cultivation of vines, inasmuch as there 
was already ample provision of these things and the commerce of 
the kingdom should not be impaired by such colonial products.” 
At the same epoch, his successor in Mexico, the Conde de Mon- 
terey, was also required to be equally vigilant and restrictive in the 
region confided to his government. These orders, however, were 
not always faithfully complied with throughout such extended and 
sparse jurisdictions as those of Mexico or Peru; and accordingly 
in 1610, through the Marques de Montesclaros, who replaced the 


COLONIAL DEPENDENCE — BAD INTERCOMMUNICATION. 51 


Conde de Monterey in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were 
repeated, with the addition of the following emphatic language : — 
‘Inasmuch as you understand perfectly, how much the observance 
of these rules is necessary for the dependence of the colonies upon 
the parent state, we charge and command you to see to their faithful 
execution.”? Wine and oil, two of the most important products of 
Spain, and two of the absolute necessaries of a Spaniard’s life, 
wherever he may happen to live, where thus protected from com- 
petition, and formed the means of preserving the colonial vassal- 
age. Nothing was left to the New World, therefore, either to manu- 
facture extensively, or to cultivate, except some of the coarser 
cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a sufficiency of the cerealia 
for domestic consumption. It was necessary to preserve an equili- 
brium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of food and the pro- 
duction of the mines; and thus the common agricultural and horti- 
cultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone left 
unencumbered for the Mexicans. 

We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was abso- 
lutely demanded for political ends, a system of internal improve- 
ment by national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding 
together all parts of the country. Highways were opened and 
horses and mules imported. But these were only suitable for the 
internal transportation of the country; and, even to the present 
day, the whole of Mexico is traversed by miserable roads, whose 
channels are often cut up into deep ravines by the unceasing attri- 
tion of caravans. The stubborn but useful mules, moving about 
the country in large bodies, under the guidance of Arrieros, follow 
each other in single file over the same path for centuries, and there 
is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by their footsteps 
to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal restrictions, and the 
want of transportation except by mules, all combined to impede 
rural industry, waste the people’s time, destroy internal intercourse, 
and to force the consumption of agricultural products either upon 
the spot where they grew or in its immediate neighborhood. The 
independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course relieved the 
nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce; but the 
agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a con- 
stitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes 
of transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern re- 
publicans. Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action 
among the people in the different states through which the new 
highways would pass, at the same time that they have impaired 


52 ARRIEROS — CORN LANDS. 


the unity of system or policy upon which the national government 
might have acted for the general improvement of internal communi- 
cation or development of agricultural resources. Some of the best 
citizens have written and labored in behalf of national industry in 
all its usual or possible manifestations; but we fear that many years 
of profound peace must be ensured to Mexico before the farmer 
will be able to share in the blessings of commerce by means of 
exportation. 


5 


— SX ~ NWS : 
2s, SS HERZ 


. 
— 


ARRIEROS AND MULES. 

The great corn Lanps of Mexico are those of Puebla ;— the 
Bajio, which comprises portions of the state of Guanajuato, Quere- 
tero, Valladolid, Zacatecas, and Guadalajara, in the vicinity of the 
Rio Santiago ; — the valley of Mexico, in the state of Mexico ; — 
the valley of Poafias, in Durango ; — and it is calculated that the 
cleared ground in these districts is capable of producing cerealia 
for a population five times greater than that of Mexico at present. 
Corn, in the states of Mexico and Puebla is worth two dollars the 
fonega of one hundred and fifty pounds ; in Oajaca about one dol- 
lar for the same quantity. Its value is every where irregular, and 


ww 


a 
ue 
~ 


DIFFERENT KINDS OF CORN IN MEXICO. 53 


no general tariff of prices can be assigned to Mexican breadstuffs 
until some great national market shall be established or Mexico 
becomes an exporting country. Neighborhoods, at present es- 
tablish prices. 

Maize or corn, is a gift from the New World to the Old, and 
is unquestionably the favorite food of the great mass of the inhabi- 
tants of our continent. In Mexico, every household is furnished 
with it abundantly, and all classes use it habitually. 

Although this plant is a native of America it is never found 
growing wild in the republic. Single stocks may be occasionally 
seen in remote or uninhabited districts, but they are rarely met, 
and, in all likelihood, have been sown by the flocks of robber birds 
who ravage the Mexican milpas or corn fields during the ripening 
season. 

The best cultivated varieties in Mexico, are : 

Ist. Maiz de padus ; with small ears, of eight rows, and the most 
unimportant of all the varieties raised in the country. 

2d. Maiz manchado, or chiniesco; a productive species with 
white, yellow and red grains ; — sometimes also entirely blue, in 
which case, it is called pinto. 

3d. Maiz blanco; a very productive kind, yielding a fine sweet 
meal. 

Ath. Marz amarillo; this is sub-divided into : — 1st, maiz ama- 
rillo gruweso, which is very generally cultivated and rarely yields 
less than two or three ears each, with from three to six hundred 
kernels or grains. 2d, maiz amarillo pequeno, is smaller and less 
stout ; but in a fruitful soil its yield weighs from ten to fifteen hun- 
dred weight, more than the grueso. 

5th. Maiz cuarentino; or quarentine corn; better known in 
Mexico under the name of maiz tremes, or, olote colorado, which 
ripens quickly and may be planted in the coldest parts of Mexico. 

6th. Maiz tardio, or, de riego; the most productive of all va- 
rieties, and that which is cultivated around the city of Mexico, and 
in many moist regions. It sometimes yields five hundred per cent. 
on the quantity planted. 

Maize succeeds best in Mexico in moist and warm climates ; 
but it has the great advantage over the other cereal grains that it 
may be as successfully cultivated in this country in the tverras calien- 
tes, as in the tierras frias. Its highest limits here are from two to 
eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, and consequently 
the time required for ripening is different at different elevations. 
It varies from seven months to six weeks. 


5A MODE OF CULTIVATION. 


The diseases which sometimes affect or destroy this vegetable in 
Mexico, as well the animals that assail it, may be summed up as 
follows 

1. La requitte, a wasting blight which affects the maize where it 
is sown upon poor soil and is subjected to damp, cold weather 
soon after planting. 

2. El carbon —a vegetable fungus growth, resembling carbon or 
coal, which appears in the ears and destroys them. This abortion 
in the fruit is believed to be produced by an insect. 

3. El hanjo—a species of uredo, which forms itself in the ear 
and ruins it. The disease is generally known as los Cuervos. 

The animals and birds that attack corn are: 

1. A sort of mole — talpa—which undermines the fields and 
destroy the young plants. 

2. The larve of melolontha, which not only seize the roots, but 
often destroy the stalks and ears. 

3. Flocks of pilfering birds, with which the corn-fields are cov- 
ered, if they are not carefully watched during the approach of har- 
vest. Neither day nor night are the ears safe from the attacks of 
these pilferers; and, in order to protect the crop, watchmen are 
placed on high stages, overlooking the acres, whence the traveller 
constantly hears their shouts, during the day, or the crack of the 
warning whips, during the night. 


Maize may be planted in Mexico at different periods of the year, 
especially in those districts in which, for nine months, there is al- 
ways sufficient moisture. In the trerra caliente, the rancheros, cul- 
tivate, in this grain, the best spots lying near their dwellings. In 
the cooler d-stricts they have two kinds of culture — one by iriga- 
tion, and another upon a dry soil. The latter mode is subdivided, 
by the Mexicans, into three kinds —the humido, aventureso, and 
temporal. 

In the first mode of cultivation the Maiz tardio, is sown, and it 
is usually found to be the most productive. A seeding made in a 
soil capable of preserving the winter’s moisture and the humidity 
of the first spring rains, is called stembra de aventureso. In the 
temporal, a quickly ripening species of corn is planted — such as 
the maiz cuarentino—which may be cultivated either before or 
during the rainy season, from May to November. 

It is rare that the common Mexican ranchero is sufficiently pro- 
vident to select the soil for his corn crop, with due care; and ac- 
cordingly we find that maize is often planted in the midst of fields 
abounding in stiff ungenial clay. 


PRODUCTION — VARIOUS USES OF CORN. 55 


The present corn production of Mexico is not accurately deter- 
mined, but it is estimated that it is the chief subsistence of at least 
five millions of persons, whilst it supplies the only fodder for all 
kinds of domestic animals. Its average product must therefore be 
not far from at least twenty millions of bushels. 


Corn is a varied article of diet among all classes. The ancient 
Mexicans made a species of sugar from the juice of the stalk — 
while the modern Mexicans brew from it a fermented drink, called 
pulque de maiz, or omayo. ‘The extremely saccharine pith of this 
plant is often devoured raw by the Indians, and it has been also 
frequently used in the manufacture of brandy. The unripe ears are 
boiled or baked, and sold in the towns and villages to the poorer 
classes, forming their sole subsistence ; while the leaves and stems 
afford a capital food for beasts. Sometimes these portions of the 
plant are devoted to architectural purposes, and a neat rustic hut is 
built of the cornlike stalks, interwoven and thatched with their 
broad and graceful leaves. 

A kind of beer, called chicha, is sometimes prepared from the 
kernels of ripened maize, and is found, by natives and strangers, to 
be an agreeable as well as wholesome beverage. When the meal 
is boiled in water, and mixed with some farinacious roots, a favorite 
and exceedingly grateful gruel, known as atolé, is formed by the 
process. In the tierra caliente, the kernels are often roasted and 
ground into pinole ;—but the most ordinary consumption of this 
precious vegetable is in the tortillas, for which Mexico is so cele- 
brated, and in the preparation of which it is estimated that more 
than two hundred thousand females, in the republic, spend four or 
five hours of every day. In order to make tortdllas, the grains of 
corn are soaked in water, to which a small quantity of lime has 
been added, until they are relieved of their shells. The pure and 
softened pulp is then laid on a flat stone or metate, one end of 
which is slightly raised from the ground. A Mexican woman 
kneels in the rear of the metate, and with another round stone, rolls, 
macerates, and amalgamates the crushed corn until it is formed into 
a rich succulent paste. Hard by, a thin metallic griddle is set over 
ignited coals, which is constantly supplied by another female, who 
pats the dough into extremely thin and delicate cakes. ‘They are 
eaten hot from the griddle, but, even when carefully, prepared, are 
deemed insipid and unsavory by foreigners. 

Nor are these the only purposes to which this delightful plant and 
its offal are devoted by the Mexicans. They have discovered, with- 
in a few years, that a capital paper, for ordinary purposes, can be 


56 BANANA — MAIZE — RICE. 


made of its leaves; and they have long ago used them as wrap- 
pers for the cigarritos, which no loyal native fails to indulge in 
hourly. 

Man and beast — dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and ci- 
gars — are thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian corn as one of 
the greatest elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury. 

The extraordinarily productive Banana is to the inhabitants of 
the tierra caliente what maize is to those who dwell in the loftier 
and cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply 
the wants of three men, but an acre of Bananas, or plantains, says 
Humboldt, will support fifty. 

The Mainoc, cassava bread, jatropha manihot, the Juca or 
Yuca, as it is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the 
tierra caliente, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts 
of Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state 
is poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the 
residuum is a farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose con- 
sumption, however, is not likely to increase in Mexico. 

The cultivation of Rice is not extensive. On the east coast 
between Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between 
Jamiltepic and Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots ; but 
it does not appear to please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to 
enter largely into the list of national productions either for export 
or home consumption. 

The Oxtve was one of the banned and forbidden products of 
the Spanish colonies ; but notwithstanding the inhibitions we have 
already cited in this section, the tree was planted in various por- 
tions of the country both previous to the revolution, and during 
intervals of repose whilst the war of liberation was waging. ‘The 
archbishop of Mexico was one of the first to cultivate a plantation 
of it at Tacubaya near the capital. At the beginning of this cen- 
tury, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios, commenced the culture at his 
hacienda de Sarabia, within the district of Salamanca, in Guana- 
juato, and succeeded admirably ; but his trees were destroyed en- 
tirely during the revolution. At present some large plantations 
have been made, in the same state, at several hactendas, and, espe- 
cially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set out, 
in 1849. 

The Vine, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican agri- 
culturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about 
Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps 
exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout 
the colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they 


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THE OLIVES — VINE — CHILE PEPPEB. 57 


were attempted ; and this rule seems to have been enforced very 
generally, except, at ‘T'ehuacan, in the state of Puebla and at some 
points in the Misteca in Oajaca. The value of Spanish wines im- 
ported annually before Mexican independence, reached the ample 
sum of $700,000; and as the French and Germans have, since the 
opening of the ports, availed themselves of the benefit for their own 
trade, it is very questionable whether the vine will ever become an 
article of extreme produce as long as the present race occupies the 
soil of Mexico. In 1843, the vine was still chiefly cultivated at 
Tehuacan and at Parras. Plantations had been made in the 
neighborhood of Zelaya, but the actual production of the region 
about Parras may be estimated from the returns of the interior cus- 
tom house of that district through which 616 barrels of native 
brandy weighing 2,693 arrobas of 25 lbs. each and 323 barrels of 
wine of 1,035 arrobas, together with 204 tierces of raisins, had 
passed during the previous year. 

Chile PEPPERS or capsicum, are extensively cultivated on the 
table lands. This pungent vegetable is not only used upon the 
table or in the food of all classes as an occasional agreeable stimu- 
lant, but has become one of the regular necessaries of life. It is 
either ground and mixed with the various sauces and stews that 
always form part of a Spanish meal, or is stuffed with pleasant con- 
diments and eaten as other products of the garden. No Mexican 
will pass a day without a dish of the genuine article, and even for- 
eigners who wince under its excoriation upon their arrival in the 
country, soon become as fond of it as the natives. 

Mexico produces nearly all the garden stuffs which are either 
natural to or have been introduced into the United States, but 
either in consequence of the climate, or of a careless mode of cul- 
tivation, they do not generally equal our own in quality or flavor. 
The tomato is very fine, lucious and plentiful; and, next to corn, 
Chili and frioles, is probably most extensively consumed. 

The fryol, a rich, nutritive, brown bean, altogether different, 
however, from the ordinary Garrabanzos, is universally found on 
the tables of Mexican gentlefolks and in the humble platters of the 
Indians or Mestizos. Various kinds of this valuable esculent are 
raised in the republic ; but the dark bean of Vera Cruz is always 
sought as a delicacy in the houses of the upper classes throughout 
the republic. It is both wholesome and nourishing. Mixed with 
the stimulating gravy formed of chile, and eaten with a tortilla or 
corn cake, it soon becomes a necessary of life toa stranger who 
resides for any length of time in Mexico. Some of our country- 

H 


58 TOMATO — FRIJOL — MAGUEY. 


men have become so fond of the food, that they have brought the 
bean with them upon their return to the United States, and now 
supply their table with it instead of hominy. From the frijol, the 
tortilla, and the Chile pepper we pass to the great national liquor, 
which requires generally longer time to win the favor of foreigners. 

THE Maeuty — Mert, or AcAvE AMERICANA, is a species of 
Ananas, or Aloe, from which is made octli or pulque, the favorite 
beverage of the lower and middle classes of Mexicans, especially 
in the central parts of the table land. 

This plant grows wild in almost every part of Mexico, yet the 
people do not extract a liquid from it, except in the neighborhood 
of Puebla and the capital, where its consumption is enormous. 
The principal plantations are in the States of Puebla, Mexico, 
Guanajuato, and a small portion of Valladolid. The districts 
most celebrated for the excellence of their liquor, are in the vicinity 
of Cholula and the Plains of Apam. -So great was the consump- 
tion of this favorite national drink, that the small municipal tax 
upon it, at the gates of the cities, amounted, before the revolution, 
to $600,000 — and, in the year 1793, to upwards of $800,000. 

Pulque is so little known in Europe, or in the United States, 
that some account of the process, by which it is made, may be ac- 

ceptable. 


AIRY 


1s, 
ij 


Nid 
nll 


MAKING PULQUE. 


MAGUEY ESTATES. 59 


‘The Maguey, or aloe, from which it is extracted, differs but 
little, in appearance, from those which abound in the south of 
Spain, and are known—though of a much smaller size—in England. 
Its growth is slow, but when arrived at maturity, its leaves are 
usually from five to eight feet in length, although some considera- 
bly exceed these dimensions. 

‘“In the Maguey estates, the plants are arranged in lines, with 
an interval of three yards between each. If the soil be good, they 
require no attention on the part of the proprietor until the period of 
flowering arrives, at which time the plant first commences to be 
productive. ‘This period is very uncertain; ten years, however, 
may be taken as a fair average, for, in a plantation of one thousand 
aloes, it is calculated that one hundred are in flower every year. 
The Indians, know, by infallible signs, almost the very hour at 
which the stem, or central shoot, destined to produce the flower, is 
about to appear, and they anticipate it, by making a deep incision 
and extracting the whole heart, or central portion of the stem, as a 
surgeon would take an arm out of the socket, leaving nothing but 
the thick outside rind, thus forming a natural basin or well, about 
two feet in depth and one and a half in diameter. Into this the 
sap, which nature intended for the support of the gigantic central 
shoot continually oozes, in such quantities that it 1s found necessary 
to remove it twice, and even three times, during the day. In order 
to facilitate this operation, the leaves on one side are cut off, so as 
_ to admit a free approach. An Indian then inserts a long gourd, 
(called acojité,) the thinner end of which is terminated by a horn, 
while at the opposite extremity a small square hole is left, to which 
he applies his lips, and extracts the sap by suction. This sap, be- 
fore it ferments, is called Aguamiel, (honey water,) and merits the 
appellation, as it is extremely sweet, and does not possess that dis- 
agreeable smell which is afterwards so offensive. 

‘* A small portion of this aguamiel is transferred from the plant 
to a building prepared for the purpose, where it is allowed to fer- 
ment for ten or fifteen days, when it becomes what is termed Ma- 
dre Pulque, (the mother of Pulque, ) which is distributed, in very 
small quantities, amongst the different skins or troughs, intended 
for the daily reception of the Aguamiel. Upon this it acts asa 
sort of leaven; fermentation is excited instantly, and in twenty- 
four hours it becomes Pulque in the very best state for drinking. 
The quantity drawn off each day is replaced by a fresh supply of 
Aguamiel, so that the process may continue during the whole year 
without interruption, and is limited only by the extent of the plan- 


60 MAKING PULQUE. 


tation. A good maguey yields from eight to fifteen quvartillos or 
pints, of Aguamiel in a day, the value of which may be taken at 
about one real, or twelve and a half cents ;—— and this supply of 
sap continues during two, and often three months. The plant, 
therefore, when about to flower, is worth ten dollars to the farmer ; 
although, in the transfer of an estate, the Magueyes de corte, ready 
for cutting, are seldom valued, one with another, at more than five. 
But, in this estimate, an allowance is made for the failure of some, 
which is unavoidable, as the operation of cutting the heart of the 
plant, if performed either too soon, or too late, is equally unsuc- 
cessful and entirely destroys the plant. The cultivation of the Ma- 
guey, where a market is at hand, has many advantages, as it is a 
plant, which, though it succeeds best in a good soil, is not easily 
affected either by heat or cold, and requires little or no water. It 
is propagated, too, with great facility; for, although the mo- 
ther plant withers away as soon as the sap is exhausted, it is re- 
placed by a multitude of suckers from the old root. There is but 
one drawback on its culture, and that is the period that must elapse 
before a new plantation can be rendered productive, and the uncer- 
tainty with regard to the time of flowering, which varies from eight 
to eighteen years. But the Maguey grounds, when once estab- 
lished, are of great value, many producing a revenue of ten and 
twelve thousand dollars per annum. 

‘The natives ascribe to Pulque as many good qualities as whis- 
key is said to possess in Scotland. They call it stomachic, —a 
great promoter of digestion and sleep, and an excellent remedy in 
many diseases. It requires a knowledge of all these good quali- 
ties to reconcile the stranger to that smell of sour milk or slightly 
tainted meat, by which the young Pulque drinker is usually dis- 
gusted; but if this can be surmounted, the liquor will be found 
both refreshing and wholesome, for its intoxicating qualities are very 
slight, and as it is drunk always in a state of fermentation, it pos- 
sesses, even in the hottest weather, an agreeable coolness. It is 
found, too, where water is not to be obtained; and even the most 
fastidious, when travelling under a vertical sun, are then forced to 
admit its merits. 

“<It is only to be met with in perfection near the places where it 
is grown; as it is conveyed to the great towns in hog-skins on 
mules or asses. During this tedious process the disagreeable odor 
increases and the freshness of the liquor is lost. A strong sort of 
brandy, called Mezical, Mescal, or aguardiente, is likewise prepared 
from the aloe, of which there is a great consumption in the coun- 


‘5 
os 


ALOES — CACTI. 61 


try. Nor is the utility of the plant confined to this; the Aztecs 
prepared from its leaves the paper on which their hieroglyphics 
were written, pieces of which, of various thickness, may be found 
at the present day. The more fibrous parts supply the country with 
pita, a strong thread or twine, which is made up into ropes and 
used not only in the interior, but on the western coast as cordage 
for vessels. It is not so pliable as hemp, and is more liable to be 
affected by the weather ; but it is extremely tough and durable, and 
consequently of very general utility. Theprecedingplate contains 
an aloe in full produce, with the leaves cut, the central cup dis- 
played, and the skin, gourd, and scraper used in extracting the 
sap.’” 

Mexico is filled with varities of Aloes and Cacti. A species 
known as the Organos — whose tall, erect and fluted columns 
shoot up to a height of ten, fifteen or twenty feet, is used in many 
parts of the table land for fences. Planted in close rows, its fine 
spines and firm limbs afford an impervious wall against intruders, 
whilst the tops of these evergreen and growing barriers are almost 
always covered with the most beautiful blossoms. In many dis- 
tricts of Mexico these cactz form one of the most picturesque as 
well as useful features in the landscape. 


1 Ward’s Mexico in 1827, vol. 1, p. 55. 


CHAP TE Y. 


COLONIAL PRODUCTS. 


ESTATES IN THE VALLEYS OF CUERNAVACA AND CUAUTLA — MEXICAN 
HACIENDAS.— SUGAR REGIONS —COFFEE—ITS YIELD.— TOBACCO— 
ORIZABA —— CHIAPAS, ETC.— INDIGO — COTTON. — MANUFACTURES 
ENCOURAGED IN MEXICO.—NO NEW AGRICULTURAL POPULATION — 
NEW MANUFACTURING POPULATION. — PRODUCTION OF COTTON — 
VAINILLA — JALAP — CACAO — COCHINEAL—BITS PRODUCTION AND 
QUANTITY. — SILK — FRUITS — AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS. — GRA- 
ZING, AND NOT AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY. 


AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS CONTINUED. — CoLONIAL PrRopucTs. 
SUGAR. 


Ir is generally admitted that the cultivation of Sugar commen- 
ced in China. The cane became first known, through Marco Polo, 
in the middle of the thirteenth century ; and it was soon after intro- 
duced into Nubia, Egypt and Ethiopia; whence, about the 15th 
century, it reached Europe. It was first planted in Sicily, and car- 
ried to Spain, Madeira, and the Canary Isles; and, twenty-eight 
years after the discovery by Columbus, it was introduced into Hayti, 
by Pedro Atienza, and speedily spread over the West Indies and 
other parts of America. 

Tue Sucar Cane is one of the most valuable agricultural pro- 
ducts of Mexico, and we are convinced from personal observation 
that the estates in the tierra caliente, where it is chiefly raised, are 
the richest, as well as most beautiful, in the republic. ‘There is 
scarcely a lovelier prospect in Mexico than that which spreads be- 
fore the traveller as he descends from the northern mountains into 
the valley or Cuernavaca, which lies south of the valley of Mexico, 
and may be reached easily in the course of a day. On every side, 
as far as the eye can reach, fields of the freshest verdure are spread 
out, dotted with the white walls and towers of the magnificent 
haciendas, which have been founded in this valley ever since the 
conquest. Screened from the cold winds of the upper table land 
by the protecting barrier of mountains which hem in the vales of 
Mexico and Puebla, the valley of Cuernavaca basks, on their south- 
ern slopes and feet, in a tropical climate. Winter never destroys 
the foliage in this sheltered region. Pleasant streams gurgle through 
its midst and afford sufficient supplies for irrigation. On the plain 
the tender green of the young cane, waves in the sun-light like a 
mass of purest velvet ; whilst the palm and the plantain mingle their 


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ESTATES IN THE VALLEYS OF CUERNAVACA AND CUAUTLA. 63 


pensile and massive foliage amid the densest groves of oranges, 
aloes, and forest trees. The valley of Cuernavaca is one of those 
picturesque regions which are so well calculated to bring back a 
fanciful beholder to the scenes he has conjured up in youth whilst 
perusing the story of Paul and Virginia, or the glowing descriptions 
of the Arabian Nights. 

It is in this charming region that some of the opulent citizens of 
the republic, have succeeded the wealthy Spaniards in the princely 
domains and haciendas of the tierra caliente. In the neighborhood 
of Cuernavaca we find the estates of Temisco, San Gabriel, Trenta 
Pesos, El Puente, Meacatlan, San Gaspar, San Vicento Chiconcuac, 
and Atlajomuleo. The valley of Cuautla unites with that of Cu- 
ernavaca, on the east, and contains, among others, the prominent 
estates of San Nicolas, Atlihuyan, San Carlos, Acotesalco, Pantit- 
lan, Cocoyoe, Calderon, Casasana, Santa Iiiez, Coahuistla, Ma- 
pastlan, and Tenestepango. 

In the state of Oajaca there are the fine haciendas of Guendolein, 
Arragon, Chicomastlahuaca and Ayotla, besides smaller plantations; 
and, in the state of Vera Cruz there are many valuable estates in 
the neighborhood of Orizaba and Cordova. The last mentioned 
establishments produce annually from 40,000 to 50,000 arrobas of 
sugar; whilst those in the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla de 
Amilpas, (calculated in all, at forty-eight, in number,) yield about 
800,000 arrobas of sugar and syrup —besides 50,000 barrels of 
rum. ‘These products, together with some indigo and coffee, raised 
in these two last named valleys, swell the value of agriculture in 
these branches to two millions and a half annually. On the estate 
of Guendolein, in Oajaca, 40,000 arrobas of sugar were yielded 
every year, which sold in the federal capital at about $160,000. At 
Atlajomuleo, in Cuernavaca, 880,000 square yards of land were 
cultivated in cane, which produced 4,600 cwt. of refined sugar, 
7,800 cwt. of molasses, and 300 cwt. of syrup. From the syrup 
is distilled the common chinguerito, or a superior species of bev- 
erage known as aguardiente de cana. At the estate of Santa Iiiez, 
near Cuautla, 4,000 barrels of this spirit are annually distilled and 
sold in Mexico at $32 each, which, with a deduction of eight dol- 
lars for transportion and duties, will leave a return for the planter 
of 24 dollars per barrel. In addition to this production of ardent 
spirits, the estate produces annually about 40,000 loaves, of twenty- 
three pounds each, or 920,000 pounds of refined sugar; and here, 
as elsewhere throughout the planting districts, it is calculated that 
the molasses, syrup, and in some places, the aguardiente, pay all 


64 ' MEXICAN HACIENDAS. 


the expenses of the estate. The chief difficulty encountered by 
the proprietors, and their administradors, is in the worthlessness of 
the Indian laborers, whose character as agriculturists we have 
noticed in the section of this work treating of the classes of Mexi- 
can society. Three hundred hands are employed at the hacienda, 
who are paid a per diem of two and a half or three reals, according 
to their qualifications or work. 

The hacienda of Temisco, in the valley of Cuernavaca, is one of 
the oldest establishments in the republic, and, within a few years, 
has passed into the possession of its present owners for the sum of 
$300,000. The extensive buildings, consisting of a commodious 
dwelling, constructed in the old Spanish style, and a large chapel, 
were erected soon after the conquest. The domain extends over 
eleven leagues of land in length, and three in width. Two hundred 
and fifty laborers produce yearly about fifty thousand loaves of su- 
gar, of an average weight of 23 pounds. ‘The annual expenses of 
the farming and management amount to thirty thousand dollars, 
which are repaid by the molasses, syrup, and spirits, as at Santa 
Iniez, while, in addition to the crop, about four thousand cattle are 
raised on the premises. On all these large estates a store is kept 
by the owner, at which nearly the whole amount of the Indian la- 
borer’s wages is received back in the course of the year. The plan- 
ters, in many parts of the country, are no longer contented with the 
old system of extracting and preparing sugar; but, notwithstand- 
ing the enormous cost of transporting such large masses of heavy 
machinery, they have introduced all the modern improved engines 
used in the United States and the West Indies. The profits must 
be large that will warrant so extravagant an expenditure. The 
great haciendas disburse, in wages and other current charges, from 
800 to 1,200 dollars weekly. The establishment of a Trapiche, or 
all the works required for a sugar estate, is so costly an enterprise, 
that it is not likely the cultivation of the article will become greatly 
extended by the opening of new estates in the most productive re- 
gions. Labor, as well as engines, will be required for this purpose, 
and it is quite improbable that the few indolent Indians in the 
neighborhood will be prevailed on to abandon their life of laziness 
for the toils of a sugar plantation. Besides this, the present pro- 
auction fully supplies the home market, and although the revenues 
and profits are extraordinarily tempting, it is doubtful whether the 
Mexicans are sufficiently enterprising in agriculture to adventure 
such enormous sums as are necessarily expended before a single 
cane is planted or a pound of sugar manufactured. As long as the 


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SUGAR REGIONS — COFFEE. 65 


rate of interest is high, the roads bad, transportation costly and 
unchanged, and the condition of the country unsettled, these vast 
and valuable rural districts will, in all likelihood, remain untenanted 
and unwrought. 


Baron Humboldt, whose analytical mind always stfives to clas- 
sify, systematize and tabularize his investigations, has endeavored 
to ascertain and limit the maximum height at which the cane may 
be cultivated ; but it is probably true that all such attempts, are al- 
together visionary, in a country of great inequalities of elevation, 
shelter and exposure. Many local causes, altogether independent 
of relative elevation may produce the degree of heat requisite to 
bring cane to perfection, yet it is generally conceded that the pro- 
duce of a plantation in the table land would not equal that of an 
estate near the coast. The valley of Cuautla, for instance, is 
bounded on the north by the lofty peak of Popocatepetl, against 
whose snows the fresh verdure of the cane, and the graceful 
branches of the palm are constantly relieved! In an hour or two 
after leaving the plantation of Santa IMez, the traveller who passes 
thence towards the valley of Mexico, finds himself obliged to put 
on his cloak or serape, after having suffered from tropical heat 
during the preceding day. It mightreasonably be supposed that 
the vicinity of such immense masses of ice and snow would na- 
turally affect the temperature of the adjacent valley; but the frosty 
peak of Popocatepetl only serves to condense the vapors that drift 
inland from the sea and to set them free over the low and warm 
valleys which border its southern base, whilst its broad shoulders 
protect the plains from the cold blasts of the north wind. 


CoFFEE. 


The soil of Mexico has been found adapted for the cultivation of 
coffee as well as sugar; but under the old Spanish dominion it 
never formed one of the articles of export, although it did not in- 
terfere with the productions of the mother country. In 1818 and 
719 extensive plantations were commenced near Orizaba and Cor- 
dova, to which additions have since been frequently made. The 
plant was likewise introduced into the valleys of Cuernavaca and 
Cuautla by Antonio Velasco and the administrador of the estates of 
the Duke of Monteleone. The large hacienda of Atlajomulco, in 
the immediate neighborhood of Cuernavaca still pertains to the de- 
scendants of Cortéz; and here the experiment of coffee culture has 
been long and successfully tried. The average produce of each 

: ; 


66 ITS YIELD — TOBACCO — ORIZABA — CHIAPAS, ETC. 


plant is estimated at about two anda half pounds throughout all 
parts of the republic where the berry is cultivated; though there are 
districts of Mexico in which it is said that three or four pounds are 
yielded. ‘This probably depends very much on the size, age, or 
quality of the tree. Mr. Ward states that he knew of a single tree, 
in the garden of Don Pablo de la Llave, at Cordova, which pro- 
duced twenty-eight pounds! ‘The slope of the eastern Cordillera is 
supposed to be best calculated for coffee estates, and it is believed 
that Yucatan and Tabasco will ultimately, under favorable circum- 
stances, become the centres of a lucrative trade in this article, if the 
Indian population can ever be trained to agricultural labors, or made 
productively industrious in a land where the wants of nature are so 
few and so easily supplied. The plantations in the interior must 
long be excluded from foreign markets for the same reason that we 
have assigned in regard to sugar. Roads and improved transpor- 
tation are the fundamental and primary elements of commercial 
civilization, and until these are obtained permanently, Mexico must 
look chiefly to her domestic market for agricultural recompense. 


ToBACCco. 


In a country in which all the men, and nearly all the women are 
habitual and even constant smokers, tobacco, must necessarily be 
an article of national importance. So valuable is its production 
that the government has continued to maintain the monopoly of its 
sale, and, previous to the revolution, managed to obtain an annual 
clear revenue of from one to two millions and a half of dollars, with 
a gross income, occasionally, of over seven millions and a half. 
In the cigar factories of Oajaca five millions of packets of paper 
cigarritos of thirty in each were prepared, besides sixty thousand 
packets each containing seven puros or ordinary cigars. 

Tobacco grows well in a small district near Orizaba and Cor- 
dova, but the best article produced in the republic, comes from 
Simojovel in the state of Chiapas and from some districts of Oajaca. 
In Yucatan and Tabasco, the plant is also cultivated successfully, 
and produces a mild and fragrant leaf which is not included in the 
national monopoly. A large portion of the tobacco sold in the 
republic is contraband; for the ridiculous and greedy restrictions 
and exactions with which a plant of such universal consumption is 
surrounded, necessarily dispose the people to violate laws which 
they feel were only made to impair their rights of production and 
trade under a constitution professing to be free. 


FLAX — INDIGO — COTTON — HEMP. 67 


INDIGO. 


Indigo was cultivated and used by the Mexicans previous to the 
conquest. The plant was known by them under the name of 
Xiuhquilipitzahuac, and the particles from which the dye stuff was 
made, as Mohuitl or Tlacohuilli. At the close of the seventeenth 
century the production of this article had already greatly decreased. 
The chief part of it, required for dyeing the cotton cloths which 
are generally used for home consumption by the Indians and lower 
classes of Mestizos, has been brought from Guatemala. It is found 
in Yucatan, Chiapas and about ‘Tehuantepec in the state of Oajaca, 
and grows wild in some very warm localities in Tabasco. In this 
last named region there is every reason to ,believe that it may be 
profitably cultivated, inasmuch as the indigo plantations of San 
Salvador, in the neighborhood of Guatemala have been known to 
produce one million eight hundred thousand pounds of the article, 
valued at two millions of dollars. 


The production of Wax, according to the Memoria Sobre el 
Estado de la Agricultura y Industria, of Don Lucas Alaman in 
1843, is gradually augmenting in the republic. Attempts have 
_ also been made to cultivate FLtax and Hemp. The first of which 
has been successfully raised by Mariano Aillou in the neighbor- 
hood of 'Tenancingo, and the latter, in the southern districts of the 
state of Michoacan, where it grows even spontaneously and is 
known under the name of guinary. The product is very large, the 
extent of territory covered by it very great, — and the thousands 
of pounds annually raised in that district, are made up into gar- 
ments whose quality is highly approved throughout the republic. 


Corton. 


In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to 
restrictive tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a - 
number of intelligent persons began some years ago to establish 
factories for cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic fac- 
tories it was supposed would naturally increase the culture of the 
raw materials, and, accordingly, the national industry was aided 
from the beginning by prohibitions or excessive duties, which either 
excluded the foreign raw material altogether, or fostered the con- 
traband introduction of cotton twist and woollen thread. 

Cotton was among the indigenous products of Mexico at the 
time of the conquest; and the early adventurers not only found it to 
constitute the common vesture of the masses of the people, but also 


68 MANUFACTURES ENCOURAGED IN MEXICO. 


that the most delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made of 
it. The Aztecs possessed the art of spinning it to an extreme de- 
gree of fineness and of imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant 
dyes for which they were celebrated; but both these mysteries 
were entirely lost in the general destruction of aboriginal arts and 
records by the Spaniards. Notwithstanding the natural anxiety 
of Spain to furnish her colonists with her manufactures, she could 
never prevent the people from weaving and wearing this sponta- 
taneous product of their soil. And, although the cultivation of 
the raw material was neglected or not pursued with the ingenious 
industry that would have made it a great staple product, it is 
nevertheless estimated that the annual value of the domestic manu- 
facture in Mexico amounted to about $5,000,000. After the con- 
summation of national independence, foreign nations hastened to 
seize the trade of Mexico and to fill the markets with an abundant 
but costly supply of European and American stuffs. The drain of 
the precious metals which this caused from a country that pos-— 
sessed no other article of export to pay for the imported merchan- , 
dize by exchanges, soon alarmed the financiers of Mexico, and ac- 
cordingly a higher scale of duties was adopted for the encourage- 
ment of domestic manufactures. ‘This, for a long time, served only 
to augment the cost of apparel to the Mexican consumer, whilst it 
had no other material effect upon the fabrics of the country ex- 
cept to seduce a number of wealthy landholders into the erection 
of factories, which have cost them, at least, ten if not twelve mil- 
lions of dollars. Unluckily, however, this amounted merely to the 
creation of vast establishments which could not rely upon the re- 
sources of the country for their supply, for the factories were built 
before the farms were opened by which they were to be furnished 
with the staple ! 

It is a fact, therefore, not very generally known, that Mexico has 
become a manufacturing country. The water power which is 
abundant in many parts of a mountainous region like that of 
Mexico, affords great facilities for such establishments. 

In 1843 there were 53 cotton factories in the republic with a 
total of 131,280 spindles, and it was estimated that, — looking 
to Mexico alone for the supply, —there would be an annual defi- 
ciency of a large quantity of the raw material. This calculation, 
it must be remembered, does not include the consumption of cotton 
by hand looms, an immense number of which are in constant use 
through the republic. 

In consequence of this evident deficiency, and the nroupeee of 


va : - = 


NO NEW AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 69 


the firm establishment of a manufacturing system, many persons 
were induced to commence the cultivation of cotton. But their 
failure was signal. It is true that in Mexico the proportion of 
small farmers and rural tenants is small, and that the great majority 
of the owners of the soil are large landholders who might some- 
times change the character of their cultivation. But these men be- 
long to the pastoral rather than the agricultural age, and delight in 
the easier tending of their flocks and herds. In addition to this 
we must take into consideration the well known characteristics of 
the southern races enervated still more by the genial climate of 
Mexico. Those races are governed by traditions. As their fathers 
wrought—so they work. Their antipathy to change is proverbial, 
and it is by no means uncommon to see the spirit of an anecdote 
related by Bazil Montague, realized every day in Mexico. 

‘‘In a particular district of Italy,’’ says he, ‘‘the peasants loaded 
their panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the oppo- 
site pannier by filling it with stones, and when a traveller pointed 
out the advantages to be gained by loading both panniers with 
vegetables, he was answered that thei forefathers, from time im- 
memorial, had so carried their produce to market; that they 
were wise and good men, and that a stranger showed very little 
understanding or decency who interfered in the established customs 
of acountry.”” Such are the difficulties to be encountered in the 
habits and prejudices of all old nations, and the embarrassment, in 
the present instance, would not be so much in creating a body of 
gentlemen planters, as in finding laborers to work the plantations 
when they had been acquired. 

Brought up as most of the Indians are, on small pieces of land, 
or in little villages among the mountains, they find that the fruitful 
soil produces, almost spontaneously, enough for their frugal sup- 
port. A skin or two, together with a few yards of cotton or 
woollen cloth, suffice, every few years, for their requisite covering. 
The broad leaves of a plantain, or, a palm with its matted vines, 
afford them shelter during the day, whilst a kennel on the ground, 
keeps off the rains or night dews. And thus, a servile content- 
ment with traditionary occupations or idleness, roots them to the 
soil where they were born, and makes them, in fact though not in 
name, the hereditary slaves of the estates on which their ancestors 
have worked for centuries. These men are, of course, not to be 
suddenly diverted from their tastes; and the worthy persons who 
have commenced the cultivation of cotton in suitable districts of 
the country where the Indians are numerous and unemployed, have 


70 NEW MANUFACTUBING POPULATION. 


been obliged to abandon their enterprises from the fact that their 
laborers speedily deserted under the plea that they were not used 
to such occupations, and, with less toil, had ample food and rai- 
ment in their goats and gardens at home. The reasoning of the 
Indians is quite natural and even wise under the peculiar circum- 
stances of their actual life. Money is no object to them, for they 
have no object upon which to expend it, and their isolated exist- 
ence affords them no comparative eas of society in which they 
might advance to a higher degree of civilization by the possession 
of wealth. Why then should they toil to acquire that which to 
them has not even the value of a counter? Possessing without la- 
bor all that is needed for mere existence, their toil can only be bene- 
ficial to their employers. In this, they perceive by their native 
sagacity, that there is no recompense and no equality of interests. 

Whilst such are the reasons why a new agricultural population 
cannot be created in Mexico, the reverse is precisely the case with 
regard to a new manufacturing population. Factories are gener- 
ally erected in the neighborhood of large towns, or in populous 
districts where the surplus of females is continually in the greatest 
indigence. These people have neither pieces of land, nor gardens, 
nor goats, nor means of livelihood except beggary or the prison, and 
consequently they flock with eagerness to every factory that affords 
the hope of employment and support. Thus, whilst the tendency 
of the agriculture of Mexico is to produce servitude, that of its 
manufactures is to create a feeling of honest independence. 

These speculations seem to indicate clearly, first, that the fixed 
policy of Mexico is to establish a national system of manufactures ; 
and, secondly, that the cultivation of the staple which is to supply 
these factories will not be largely increased; or if it be increased 
at all, its augmentation will not be proportionate to the number and 
demand of the factories. 


The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is 
so close that we have been unable in the preceding passages to 
avoid anticipating some statements which will be more amply set 
forth in our section on Mexican manufactures. We shall now 
turn our attention to the cultivation and annual production in the 
republic. 


Throughout the cotton growing districts of the United States the 
cotton plant is of annual growth. Frost destroys it, and the plan- 
ter is obliged to renew the seed for every crop. But, in the tierra 


PRODUCTION OF COTTON — VAINILLA. “a 


caliente of Mexico, this is not requisite, as the tree propagates 
itself, and the laborers are only required to keep the fields clear of 
extraneous plants which spring up so rapidly and luxuriantly in 
tropical climates. 

Notwithstanding the advantages offered by the erection of the 
factories in Mexico, the best data obtained by Don Lucas Alaman 
in 1843, presented only the following meagre returns of the proxi- 
mate quantity of cotton raised in some of the states of the republic, 
excluding, of course, the small parcels raised by Mestizos and In- 
dians for their private consumption : 


ARROBAS. LBS. 
In the state of Jalisco, ; ; 1,000 or 25,000 
Be fe Sonora, . ; *., 3,000: s 6° 4 87,500 
ef £¢ Durango, . 5 3,044 * 76,100 
ce cs Oajaca, . : HW 215834455 653895576 
ce ge Puebla, : ; 3,738, % 938490 
6¢ ce Vera Cruz, : . 14,496 ‘* 362,400 


47,361 ‘1,184,025 
In this estimate the cleaned and uncleaned, or ginned and un- 
ginned cotton are averaged together. It is generally considered, 
however, that the whole country really produces at present about 


seventy thousand quintals or seven millions of pounds. 


The quantity, and consequently the value of the Mexican cotton 
crop has been very variable. At Tepic on the west coast, in 
whose vicinity there are many valuable factories, it has been sold 
as low as fifteen dollars per quintal; while at Vera Cruz on the 
east coast it has risen to twenty-two and twenty-four dollars, and, 
in Puebla and the city of Mexico it has reached even to forty and 
forty-eight dollars. Cotton gins have been established at Alva- 
rado, at Cosamaloapan, anc Tuxtla on the northern and eastern 
coasts, and at Tepic, on the west; but they are not sufficiently 
numerous throughout the country to supply even the present limited 
production. 


VAINILLA. 


Mexico is generally considered the native country of the de- 
licious vainilla bean, which grows wild along the eastern coast 
amid the endless variety of parasitic plants with which the forests 
are filled. It is a native of Vera Cruz, Oajaca and Tabasco. On 
the wooded mountain or hill slopes of the latter it has been dis- 
covered in great quantities ; but throughout Mexico this pleasant 


72 JALAP — CACAO — COCHINEAL. 


and valuable product has been left almost entirely to the care of 
Indians. Its cultivation is exceedingly simple. A shoot of the 
plant is inserted in the ground at the foot of a tree intended to 
support the future vine, which, if properly freed from the encum- 
brance of other parasites, soon embraces the trunk, and yields 
beans during the third year. This hardy and fruitful plant lasts 
from a quarter to half a century, according to the attention that is 
bestowed on it; and it is remarkable that its cultivation has not 
engaged the attention of foreigners who might safely reside in the 


beautiful and healthy regions of Jalapa. 


JALAP. 


Jaap, like vainilla, is a parasitic plant; but its root instead of 
its fruit is used for medicinal purposes. Its leaves resemble the 
ivy and its beautiful red flowers open only at night. Growing 
plentifully in the neighborhood of Jalapa, whence it takes its name, 
it is usually sent abroad through Vera Cruz, where the commer- 
cial returns show that more than three thousand quintals are rarely 
exported. : 


CACAO. 


The use of chocolate is so universal in Mexico and throughout 
Spanish countries, that it might naturally be supposed the cultiva- 
tion of cacao was largely and carefully attended to in the republic. 
Such, however, is not the case. The cacao of Soconusco, and of 
the low grounds of Caraccas, Guatemala and Guyaquil, was found 
to be so superior to the Mexican article, that its production has 
been almost abandoned except in the neighborhood of Colima, or 
on the Isthmus and in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas. 


CocHINEAL. 


The Opuntia, or Indian fig, a species of cactus is the food in 
Mexico which supports an insect from whose body the dye known 
as CocHINEAL is made. It is found also in Brazil where it nour- 
ishes the grana sylvestre which affords a dye that is greatly inferior 
in color as well as durability to that produced by the grana fina of 
Mexico. | 

The grana fina resembles a small bug in size and color, covered 
with a whitish mealy powder, through which the rings or cross 
stripes on the back of the insect are distinctly visible; the female 
alone produces the dye; the males are smaller, and one is found 
sufficient to impregnate three hundred females. 


vis a 
i 
~ 


ITS PRODUCTION AND QUANTITY — SILK. To 


The cochineal bug feeds only on the leaf of the opuntia. The 
process of rearing is complicated and attended with much diffi- 
culty. The leaves of the nopal upon which the seed is deposited, 
must be kept free from all foreign substances, and, in the cochin- 
eal districts the Indian women constantly tend the eine brushing 
them lightly with a squirrel’s tail. 

In a good year one pound of seed deposited upon the plant in 
October, will yield in December, twelve pounds of cochineal, leav- 
ing a sufficient quantity of seed behind for a second crop in May. 
The plantations of the cochineal cactus are confined to the district 
of the Misteca, in the state of Oajaca and in the valley of Oajaca 
at Ocotlan. 

Some of the Haciendas de Nopales contain from fifty to sixty 
thousand plants, arranged in lines like the aloes in the Maguey 
plantations already described, and cut down to a certain height, in 
order to enable the Nopaleros to clean them more easily. 

In the year 1758, a government registry-ofiice was established 
in Oajaca, in consequence of the complaints of British merchants, 
who had received cargoes of adulterated cochineal. This bureau 
kept an accurate account of the production and value of the article, 
within its jurisdiction, and a tabular statement of the result has 
since been published in the Memoria Estadistica de Oajaca, &c. &c., 
of Don J. M. Murgnia y Galardi, who was a deputy to the Cortes 
from that province. By this document, and subsequent returns, it 
appears that from 1758 to 1832, mec meet in 75 years, — 
44,195,750 pounds of cochineal were produced in the state of 
Oajaca alone, which were worth $106,170,671 at the market price. 


SILK. 


After the independence of Mexico was secured the Mexicans in 
the neighborhood of Zelaya, and in a few other places, attempted 
the cultivation of the mulberry tree, for the purpose of feeding 
silk worms. But this agricultural speculation failed. The plan- 
ters did not possess the Chinese mulberry, which is universally 
adopted as the best in all silk producing countries. 

In 1841 an association under the style of the ‘‘ Michoacan Com- 
pany,” was organized, in the capital of Michoacan, for the encour- 
agement of silk culture. ‘The members of this body labored dili- 
gently to introduce the Chinese tree, and spread it far and wide 
through the states of Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro, Jalisco, 
Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Michoacan. These 
labors were performed by thirty-six Juntas de fomento, or com- 

J 


74 FRUIT — AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS. 


mittees of encouragement, and although the trees have most gener- 
ally grown well, it is to be feared that the enterprise resembled the 
wild speculations in that species of mulberry which, about the same 
period, both made and lost so many fortunes in the United States. 
The cultivation of silk has been warmly urged by Don Lucas Ala- 
man, as exceedingly suitable for the state of Oajaca, where, in the 
course of time, it may replace the cochineal whose product it 
is said is beginning to fail in that district. 


Fruits. 


The finest fruits of Mexico are commonly found in the terra 
caliente. ‘The orange, lemon, lime, pine apple, banana, chirimoya, 
sapote, ahuacate, tuna, granadita, are produced in great perfection. 
The apples, peaches, cherries, grapes and gooseberries do not 
possess the high flavor, nor are they found in the same varieties, 
as in the United States; but the pears, especially those known as 
Gamboa pears, are exceedingly delicious. Nearly all these fruits 
are consumed in their natural state, yet immense quantities are pre- 
served and form the extraordinary varieties of dulces without which 
no Mexican table is considered properly set forth. It is very pro- 
bable that if horticulture and agriculture were scientifically studied 
by Mexicans, or if North American and European gardeners were to 
emigrate to the country, even the fruits which are now inferior to 
ours, would improve in quality, size and flavor under their skilful 
management. 


AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS. 


From all that we have already stated in regard to the Indian or 
laboring population of Mexico, the nature of the seasons, and the 
want of irrigation in many districts, except by artificial means, it 
will be perceived that the agricultural progress of the country is 
extremely doubtful. In addition to this, the land belongs to a 
few proprietors, many of whom own estates of twenty, thirty, forty, 
fifty, and even a hundred leagues square, which are chiefly devoted 
to herds instead of agriculture. Mexico is thus rather in the pas- 
toral than the commercial age, and must pass through the transi- 
tion state of independent sub-divided labor before she can stand, na- 
turally, upon the same platform with northern and European nations. 

The early Spanish settlers were eager monopolists of mines and 
land. Their object was to realize fortunes speedily; and by a 
liberal repartimiento of Indians they were enabled to found large 
estates upon which those Indians either toiled as husbandmen or 


GRAZING AND NOT AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY. 15 


tended uncounted herds. The prolific soil soon yielded, with little 
labor, the required quantity of vegetables and cereal products ; 
domestic markets were wanted for the sale of the surplus, and the 
Spanish government did not open its harbors for exportation. 
Agriculture was thus early limitedtothemereanimal wants of the 
glebe adscripti and emigrant Spaniards, and as the Indian never 
labors except when compelled by force or necessity, he soon pre- 
ferred the idle and wandering life of a herdsman to that of a farmer. 
Many of these estates now number from ten to twenty thousand 
head of cattle. Besides this the Spanish laws presented the In- 
dian no prospects of independent agricultural nights. The foreign 
landholder enjoyed the exclusive ownership of the vast freehold. 
There was no encouragement or hope given to small farmers who 
might emerge from the servile race, and the consequence is that 
Mexico, until she becomes an exporting country, receives an aug- 
mented population by immigration, and sub-divides her immense ter- 
ritorial manors, under the demands of trade, will, in all likelihood 
remain stationary in every thing pertaining to agriculture. It is 
the multiplication of freeholders under the stimulus of commerce, 
that promotes freedom, industry, and personal independence. 
Competition is continually excited by the wants of a numerous 
nation, or by the prospect of selling the results of our labor to 
others abroad who are not so well supplied or do not produce the 
articles we cultivate and manufacture. But Mexico, as at present 
constituted, is an exceedingly small white cwilized nation, if we 
exclude her four anda half millions of Indians. She is not in- 
creased annually by immigration from the crowded countries of the 
Old World, nor does she encourage the advent of strangers. Her 
population therefore is substantially confined within the narrow 
limits of natural increase by birth alone. These singular facts ex- 
hibit the anomalous condition of all the Spanish settlements upon 
the virgin and inviting soil of America; and until the Chinese ex- 
clusiveness of these various western nations is abandoned as an 
absurdity in the nineteenth century, we do not believe that the 
Arab plough will be replaced by the civilized impiements of North 
American agriculture, or that the Mexican shepherd will turn into 
an enlightened farmer. We have seen that even the stimulus of 
domestic demand for cotton, has been unable to produce a new 
agricultural class among those who were devoted to other tradi- 
tionary toils. What hope, then, can there be of an improvement 
in cereal cultivation, when the country is already supplied, and 
owns neither a navy nor merchantmen ? : 


CHAPTE RY 4s 


REFLECTIONS ON EMIGRATION— ADVANTAGES OF AMERICA—LAND 
AND LABOR. — MINES WROUGHT BY AZTECS —MINING  DIS- 
TRICTS AND EXTENT IN MEXICO.— ERRORS AS TO EARLY SUP- 
PLY OF METALS FROM AMERICA—TRUE PERIOD OF ABUNDANCE 
— MINES NOT EXHAUSTED—CONDITION—FAMILIES ENRICHED. 
— EFFECT OF MINING ON AGRICULTURE. — RELATIVE PRODUCT 
OF SILVER FOR TEN YEARS — TABLE OF PRODUCT—YIELD OF 
THE MINES SINCE THE CONQUEST. — COINAGE 1844— TOTAL 
COINAGE 1535 to 1850. 


Mexican Mines, Minera WeatrH anp CoinaGeE. 


Ir is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was 
one of the most powerful stimulants of the Spanish conquest and 
subsequent emigration; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect 
the manner in which the Castilian power was founded on this con- 
tinent and the colonial policy it originated. It will be seen by the 
tables annexed to this section, that the results have largely fulfilled 
the hopes of the European adventurers, and that the wealth of the 
world has been immensely augmented and sustained, by the 
discovery of our Continent. In the order of the earth’s gradual 
development, under the intellectual enterprise or bodily labor of 
man, we find the most beautiful system of accommodation to the 
growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is required for the 
crowded population of the Old World, and a new continent is sud- 
denly opened, into which the cramped and burdened millions may 
find room for industry and independent existence. The political 
institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the encroachments 
of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust or un- 
wise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws, and a 
virgin country is forthwith assigned to man in which the principle 
of self government may be tried without the necessity of casting 
off by violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing indus- 
try or invention of the largely augmented populations of the earth, 
exacts either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the 
precious metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and 
forests of a far off continent, in which the fable of the golden sands 
of Pactolus is realized. The labor of men and the flight of time 


LAND AND LABOR. ha 


strip commercial countries of their trees, yet, in order to support the 
required supply of fuel, not only for the comfort and preservation 
but also for the industry of the race, the heart of the earth beneath 
the soil which is required for cultivation, is found to be veined 
with inexhaustible supplies of mineral coal. 

The bounty and the protective forethought of God for his crea- 
tures is not only intimated but proved by these benevolent store- 
houses of treasure, comfort and freedom; and whilst we acknow- 
ledge them with proper gratitude, we should not forget that their 
acquirement and enduring possession are only to be paid for by 
labor, economy, and social as well as political forbearance. 

We do not think these observations out of place in a chapter 
devoted to the mineral wealth of Mexico. The subject of property 
and its representative metals, should be approached in a reflective 
and christian spirit, in an age in which the political and personal 
misery of the overcrowded masses of Europe, is forcing them to 
regard all who are better provided for, or more fortunate by thrift 
or the accident of birth, as enemies of the poor. The demagogue 
leaders of these wretched classes, pushing the principle of just 
equalization to a ridiculous and hideous extreme, have not. hesi- 
tated to declare in France, since the revolution of February, 1848, 
that ‘‘ property is robbery.” We shall not pause to examine or 
refute the false dogma of a dangerous incendiary. The common 
sense aS well as the common feeling of mankind revolts at it. 
Property, as the world is constituted by God, is the source of new 
industry, because it is, under the laws of all civilized nations, the 
original result of industry. ‘‘It makes the meat it feeds on.” 
Without it there would be no duty of labor, no exercise of human 
ingenuity or talent, no responsibility, no reward. The mind and 
body would stagnate under such a monstrous contradiction of all 
our physical and intellectual laws. The race would degenerate 
into its former savage condition ; and force, instead of its antago- 
nists, industry and honest competition, would usurp the dominion 
of the world and end this vicious circle of bastard civilization. 

And yet it is the duty of an American, — who, from his superior 
position, both in regard to space in which he can find employment 
and equal political laws by which that employment is protected, 
stands on a vantage ground above the confined and badly gov- 
erned masses of Europe, —to regard the present position of the 
European masses not only with humane compassion, but to sympa- 
thize with that natural feeling that revolts against a state of society 


1 La propriete c’est le vol.”” Prudhon. 


78 MINES — WROUGHT BY AZTECS. 


which it seems impossible to ameliorate, and yet whose wants or 
luxuries do not afford them support. It is hard to suffer hunger 
and to see our dependants die of starvation, when we are both able 
and willing to work for wages but can obtain no work upon which 
to exercise our ingenuity or our hands. It is frightful to reflect, 
says Mr. Carlyle, in one of his admirable essays, that there is 
hardly an English horse, in a condition to labor for his owner, that 
is deprived of food and lodging, whilst thousands of human beings 
rise daily from their obscure and comfortless dens in the British 
isles, who do not know how they shall obtain employment for the 
day by which they may purchase a meal. 

To this dismal account of European suffering, the condition of 
the American continent affords the best reply. The answer and 
the remedy are both displayed in the social and political institu- 
tions, as well as in the boundless unoccupied and _ prolific tracts of 
our country. Labor cries out for work and recompense from the 
Old World, whilst the New displays her soil, her mines, her com- 
merce and her trades, as the best alms that one nation can bestow 
on another, because they come direct from God and are the reward 
of meritorious industry. Before such a tribunal the modern dema- 
gogue of continental Europe shrinks into insignificance, and the 
laws of labor are effectually vindicated. 

The Mines or Mexico have been wrought from the earliest 
periods. Long before the advent of the Spaniards, the natives of 
Mexico, like those of Peru, were acquainted with the use of metals. 
Nor were they contented with such specimens as they found scat- 
tered at random on the surface of the earth or in the ravines of 
mountain torrents, but had already learned to dig shafts, pierce 
galleries, form needful implements, and trace the metallic veins in 
the hearts of mountains. We know that they possessed gold, sil- 
ver, lead, tin, copper and cinnabar. Beautiful samples of jewelry 
were wrought by them, and gold and silver vases, constructed in 
Mexico, were sent to Spain by the conquerors, as testimonials of 
the mineral wealth of the country. The dependant tribes paid 
their tributes to the sovereign in a species of metallic currency, 
which though not stamped by royal order, was yet the representa- 
tive of a standard value. The exact position of all the mines from 
which these treasures were derived by the Aztecs is not certainly 
known at the present day, but as the natives were often compelled 
to indicate some of the sources of their riches to the conquerors 
there is little doubt that the present mineral district of the republic 
is that from which they procured their chief supplies. 


MINING DISTRICTS AND EXTENT IN MEXICO. 719 


The mines of Mexico may be classed in eight groups, nearly all 
of which are placed on the top or on the western slope of the great 
Cordillera. 

The first of these groups has been the most productive, and 
embraces the districts contiguous to Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, 
Charcas, Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo and 
Sombrerete. 

The second comprises the mines situated west of the city of Du- 
rango as well as those in Sinaloa, for the labors of engineers have 
‘brought them so close to each other by their works that they 
may be united in the same geological division. 

The third group is the northernmost in Mexico, and is that 
which embraces the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It 
extends from the 27th® to the 29th° of north latitude. 

The fourth and fifth clusters are found north-east of Mexico, 
and are formed by the mines of Real del Monte or Pachuca, and 
Zimapan, or, El Doctor. 

Bolajios, in Guadalajara, and Tasco in Oajaca, are the central 
points of the sixth, seventh and eighth. } 

The reader who will cast his eye over the map of Mexico, will 
at once perceive that the geographical space covered by this me- 
talliferous region, is small when compared with the great extent of 
the whole country. The eight groups into which the mining dis- 
tricts are divided occupy a space of twelve thousand square leagues, 
or one tenth only of the whole extent of the Mexican republic as it 
existed previous to the treaty of 1848 and before the mineral wealth 
of California and probably of New Mexico was known to the world. 
But as that treaty confirmed and ceded to the United States more 
than one half of the ancient territory of Mexico, we may estimate 
the mining region as covering fully one fifth of the remainder. 

Before the discovery and conquest of the West Indies and the 
American continent, Europe had looked to the east for her chief 
supplies of treasure. America was discovered by Columbus, not 
as was so long imagined, because he foresaw the existence of 
another continent, but because he sought a shorter route to the 
rich and golden Zipangou, and to the spice regions of eastern Asia. 
Columbus and Vespuccius both died believing that they had 
reached eastern Asia, and thus a geographical mistake led to the 
greatest discovery that has ever been made. In proof of these as- 
sertions we may state that Columbus designed delivering at Cuba, 
the missives of the Spanish king to the great Kahn of the Mongols, 


' Humboldt, Essai Politique, Book iv., chap. ii. - Paris, 1811. 


80 ERRORS AS TO EARLY SUPPLY 


and that he imagined himself in Mangi the capital of the southern 
region of Cathay or China! ‘‘The Island of Hispaniola,” ( Hayti) 
he declares to Pope Alexander VI., in a letter found in the archives 
of the Duke of Varaguas,— ‘‘is Tarshish, Ophir, and Zipangou. 
In my second voyage, I have discovered fourteen hundred islands, 
and a shore of three hundred and thirty-three miles, belonging to 
the continent of Asia.”? This West Indian Zipangou produced 
golden fragments or spangles, weighing eight, ten and even twenty 
pounds. ! 

Before the discovery of the silver mines of Tasco, on the western — 

slope of the Mexican Cordillera, in the year 1522, America sup- 
plied only gold to the Old World, and consequently, Isabella of 
Castile was obliged, already in 1497, to modify greatly, the relative 
value of the two precious metals used for currency. This was 
doubtless the origin of the Medina edict — which changes the old 
legal ratio of 1: 10.7. Yet Humboldt has shown that, from 1492 
to 1500, the quantity of gold drawn from the parts of the New 
World then known, did not amount, annually, to more than about 
one thousand pounds avoirdupois ; — and the Pope Alexander VI., 
who, by his famous Bull, bestowed one half the earth upon the 
Spanish kings, only received in return, from Ferdinand the Catho- 
lic, some small fragments of gold from Hayti, to gild a portion 
of the dome of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore;—a gift 
that was suitably acknowledged in a Latin inscription in which the 
offering is set forth as the first that had been received by the 
Catholic sovereigns from India. . 
; Although the income of treasure must have increased somewhat, 
yet the working of the American mines did not yield three millions 
of dollars yearly until 1545. The ransom of Atahualpa amountea, 
according to Gomara, to about four hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars of our standard, or fifty-two thousand marks of silver, 
whilst, the pillage of the Temples at Cuzco, if Herrera is to be cre- 
dited, did not produce more than twenty-five thousand seven hun- 
dred marks, or a little more than a quarter of a million of our 
currency. ” 

It has been generally imagined that the wealth of the New World 
immediately and largely enriched the Spanish kings or their people; 
and that the sovereigns, under whose auspices the discovery was 


' See Humboldt’s essay on the production of gold and silver in the Journal des 
Economistes for March, April and May, 1838. 

2 See Humboldt’s Essay on Precious Metals, ut antea -in note-in the American 
translation, given in yol. ili., of the Banker’s Magazine, p. 509. 


OF METALS FROM AMERICA. 81 


made, participated, at once, in the treasures that were found in the 
possession of the Indian rulers. Such, however, was not the case. 
The historian Ranke, in his essay on the Spanish finances, has 
shown, by new documents and official vouchers, the small quantity 
of the precious metals which the American mines, and the supposed 
treasures of the Incas yielded.! It is probable that the conquerors 


‘did not make exact returns to the court of their acquisitions, or 


that the revenue officers, appointed at an early period of American 
history, were not remarkable for the fidelity with which they trans- 
mitted the sums that came into their possession as servants of the 
crown ; and thus it happened that neither the king of Spain nor his 
kingdom, was speedily enriched by the New World. Baron Hum- 
boldt, in one of his late publications, gives an interesting extract 
from a letter written by a friend of Ferdinand the Catholic a few 
days after his death, which exhibits the finances of that king in a 
different light from that in which they have been hitherto viewed. 
In an epistle to the bishop of Tuy, Peter Martyr says, that this 
‘‘ Lord of many realms, —this wearer of so many laurels, — this 
diffuser of the Christian faith and vanquisher of its enemies, — died 
poor, ina rustic hut. Whilst he lived no one imagined that after 
his death it would be discovered that he possessed scarcely money 
enough either to defray the ceremony of his sepulture, or to furnish 
his few retainers with suitable mourning!”? The adventurers in 
/Almerica, were doubtless enriched, and duly reported their gains to 
friends at home; but Spain itself was not speedily improved by 
their acquisitions. 


The rise in the prices of grain and other products of agriculture 
or human industry, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and 
especially from 1570 to 1595, indicates the true beginning of the 
plentiful flow of the precious metals to the Old World, in conse- 
quence of which their value diminished and the results of European 
industry increased in price. This is accounted for by the com- 
mencement of the beneficial working of the American mines about 
that period. ‘The real opening of the mines of Potosi, by the 
Spanish conquerors, dates from the year 1545; and it was between 
this epoch and 1595, that the splendid masses of silver from Tasco, 
Zacatecas, and Pachuca, in New Spain; and from Potosi, Porco 
and Oruro, in the chain of Peruvian Andes, began to be distributed 
more uniformly over Europe, and to affect the price of its produc- 


» See Ranke : Fursten and Volker, vol. i., pp. 347, 355. 
* Pet. Mart. Epist. lib. xxix., No. 556, 23d January, 1516. 
K 


82 TRUE PERIOD OF ABUNDANCE. 


tions. From the period of the administration of Cortéz to the year 
1552, when the celebrated mines of Zacatecas were just opened, the 
export from Mexico, rarely reached in value, annually, 100,000 
pesos de oro, or nearly $1,165,000. But from that date it rose 
rapidly, and in the years 1569, 1578 and 1587, it was already, 
respectively — 


931,564 Pesos de oro. ) The Peso de oro, is rated by Prescott, 
fd L202) iss ue at $11.65 cents, and by Ramirez, 


1,812,051 6c : at $2.93 cents. ! 

During the last peaceful epoch of the Spanish domination, Ba- 
ron Humboldt calculates the annual yield of the mines of Mexico 
at not more than $23,000,000, or nearly 1,184,000 pounds, avoir- 
dupois, of silver, and 3,500 pounds, avoirdupois, of gold. From 
1690 to 1803 — $1,330,772,093 were coined in the only mint of 
Mexico; while, from the discovery of New Spain until its inde- 
pendence, about $2,028,000,000, or two-fifths of all the precious 
metals which the whole of the New World has supplied during the 
same period, were furnished by Mexico alone. * 

It appears from these data that the exhaustion of the mines of 
Mexico is contradicted by the geognostic facts of the country, and 
as we shall hereafter show, by the recent issues of Mexican mints. 
The mint of Zacatecas, alone, during the revolutionary epoch, from 
1811 to 1833, struck more than $66,332,766, and, in the eleven 
last years of this period, from four to five millions of dollars were 
coined by it every year uninterruptedly. 

The general metallic production of the country, — which was of 
course impeded by the revolutionary state of New Spain between 
1809 and 1826,—has arisen refreshed from its slumber, so that, 
according to the best accounts it has ascended to perhaps twen- 
ty millions annually in total production, in consequence of the 
prolific yield of the workings at Fresnillo, Chihuahua, and So- 
nora, independent of the abundant production at Zacatecas. 


1 See M. Ternaux-Compans’ Original Memoirs of the discovery of America—(Con- 
quest of Mexico,p. 451')—Compans publishes in this, for the first time, an official list 
sent between 1522 and 1587 by the viceroys of New Spain to the mother country. 
The pesos of gold, must be multiplied by a mean of eleven dollars and sixty-five cents 
in order to give their value in dollars. See Banker’s Magazine, ut antea, p. 594, in 
note. See Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. i., 320. Raminez, in 
his notes on the Spanish translation of Prescott’s History of the Conquest rates the peso 
de oro at two dollars and ninety-three cents. This result is reached by a long finan- 
cial calculation and course of reasoning. See La Conquista de Mejico, vol. ii., at p. 
89 of the notes at the end of the volume. : 

2 This is Humboldt’s estimate in the essay cited in this section. We think it 
rather too large, yet give it upon such high authority. See our general table of 
Mexican coinage. 


CONDITION. 83 


MINES NOT EXHAUSTED 


The Mexican mines were eagerly and even madly seized by the 
English, and even by the people of the United States, as objects 
of splendid speculation, as soon as the country became settled ; 
but, in consequence of bad management, or the wild spirit of gam- 
bling which assumed the place of prudent commercial enterprise, 
the holders of stock were either disappointed or sometimes ruined. 
Subsequently, however, the proprietors have learned that prudence 
and the experience of old Mexican miners was better than the theo- 
retical principles upon which they designed producing larger reve- 
nues than had ever been obtained by the original Spanish workmen. 
Their imported modern machinery and engines for voiding water 
from the shafts and galleries is the chief beneficial improvement 
introduced since the revolution; but the enormous cost of trans- 
porting the heavy materials, in a country where there are no navi- 
gable rivers extending into the heart of the land, and where the 
usual mode of carriage is on the backs of mules, by wretched 
roads over mountains and through ravines, has often absorbed large 
portions of the original capital before the proprietors even began 
to employ laborers to set up their foreign engines. Many of the 
first British and American adventurers or speculators have, thus, 
been ruined by unskilful enterprises in Mexican mines. Their 
successors, however, are beginning to reap the beneficial results of 
this expenditure, and, throughout the republic steam engines, to- 
gether with the best kinds of hydraulic apparatus, have superseded 
the Spanish malacates. 

‘¢ Whenever these superb countries which are so greatly favored 
by nature,”’ says Humboldt, in his essay on gold and silver, in the 
Journal des Economistes, ‘‘shall enjoy perfect peace after their deep 
and prolonged internal agitations, new metallic deposites will ne- 
cessarily be opened and developed. In what region of the globe, 
except America, can be cited such abundant examples of wealth, 
in silver? Let it not be forgotten that near Sombrerete, where 
mines were opened as far back as 1555, the family of Fagoaga, — 
Marquesses de Apartado, —derived, in the short space of five 
months, from a front of one hundred and two feet in the outcrop- 
ping of a silver mine, a net profit of $4,000,000; while, in the 
mining district of Catorce, in the space of two years and a half, 
between 1781 and the end of 1783, an ecclesiastic, named Juan 
Flores, gained $3,500,000, on ground full of chloride of silver and 
of colorados !” 

One of the most flourishing establishments in 1842, was the 
Zacatecano-Mejicano Mining Company of Fresnillo. Its 120 


84. FAMILIES ENRICHED. 


shares, which originally cost $22,800, were still held by Spaniards 
and Mexicans. ‘These mines were originally wrought by the state 
of Zacatecas; but, in 1836, Santa Anna took possession, by an 
alleged right of conquest, and rented them for twelve years, to the 
successful company. In the first half year of 1841, they produced 
$1,025,113, at a cost of $761,800, or a clear profit of $263,313. 


Mexico, under the colonial system with the immense product of 
her mines, and notwithstanding the richness of her soil for agricul- 
tural purposes, became almost entirely a silver producing country. 
The policy of Spain was, as we have aiready often stated, to be 
the workshop of the New World, while Mexico and Peru were the 
treasures of the Old. The consequence of this was natural. 
Mexico, one of the finest agricultural and grazing, lands in the 
world, but with no temptations to export her natural products, as 
she had no markets for them elsewhere, and no roads, canals, or 
rivers to convey her products to seaports for shipment even if she 
had possessed consumers in Europe, at once devoted herself to her 
mines which were to be both wealth and the representatives of 
wealth. Her agriculture, accordingly, assumed the standard of the 
mere national home consumption, while the pastoral and horticul- 
tural interests followed the same line, except perhaps, within late 
years in California, where a profitable trade was carried on by the 
missions in hides and tallow. From this restrictive law of expor- 
tation we of course except vainilla, cochineal and a few other minor 
articles. 

The sources of the wealth of the principal families of Mexico 
will consequently be found in her mines, and an interesting sum- 
mary of this aristocracy is given by Mr. Ward in his “‘ Mexico in 
1827,” to prove the fact. The family of Regla, which possessed 
large estates in various parts of the country, purchased the whole 
of them with the proceeds of the mines of Real del Monte. The 
wealth of the Fagoagas was derived from the great Bonanza of the 
Pavellon at Sombrerete. ‘The mines of Balafios founded the Viban- 
cos. Valenciana, Ruhl, Perez-Galvez, and Otero, are all indebted 
for their possessions to the mines of Valenciana and Villalpando, 
at Guanajuato. The family of Sardaneta, — formerly Marqueses 
de Rayas, — took its rise from the mine of that name. Cata and 
Mellado enriched their original proprietor, Don Francisco Matias 
de Busto, Marquis of San Clemente. The three successive for- 
tunes of the celebrated Laborde, of whom we shall speak hereafter 
when we describe Cuernavaca, were derived from the mines of 


EFFECT OF MINING ON AGRICULTURE. 85 


Quebradilla, and San Acasio at Zacatecas, and from the Cafiada 
which bore his name at Tlalpujahua. The beautiful estates of the 
Obregones, near Leon, were purchased with the revenues of the 
mines of La Purisima and Concepcion, at Catorce ; as was also the 
estate of Malpasso acquired by the Gordoas from the products of 
of La Luz. The Zambranos,— discoverers of Guarisamey, — 
owned many of the finest properties in Durango; while Batopillas 
gave the Bustamantes the opportunity to purchase a title and to 
enjoy an immense unencumbered income. ! 

Nevertheless, some of the large fortunes of Mexico were made 
either by trade or the possession of vast agricultural and cattle es- 
tates in sections of the country where there were either no mines, 
or where mining was unprofitable. The Agredas were enriched 
by commerce, while the descendants of Cortéz who received a 
royal grant of the valley of Oajaca, together with some Spanish 
merchants in Jalapa and Vera Cruz, derived the chief part of their 
fortunes from landed estates, cultivated carefully during the period 
when the Indians were under better agricultural subjection than at 
present. 

Thus the mines, and the mining districts, by aggregating a large 
laboring population, in a country in which there were, until re- 
cently, but few manufactures, and in which the main body of the 
people engaged either in trades or in tending cattle, became the 
centre of some of the most active agricultural districts. ‘‘ The 
most fertile portions of the table land are the Baxio, which is im- 
mediately contiguous to Guanajuato, and comprises a portion of 
Valladolid, Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Guanajuato. The valley 
of Toluca, and the southern part of the state of Valladolid, both 
supply the capital and the mining districts of Tlalpujahua, El 
Oro, Temascaltepec and Angangeo ;— the plains of Pachuca and 
Appam, which extend on either side to the foot of the mountains 
upon which the mines of Real del Monte Chico are situated ; — 
Itzmiquilpan, which owes its existence ‘to Zimapan ; — Aguas 
Calientes, by which the great mining town of Zacatecas is sup- 
plied ; —a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sombrerete and 
Fresnillo ; — the valley of Jarral and the plains about San Luis 
Potosi, which town again derives its name from the mines of the 
Cerro de San Pedro, about four leagues from the gates, the sup- 
posed superiority of which to the celebrated mines of Potosi in 
Peru gave rise to the appellation of Potosi. A little farther north 
we find the district of Matehuala, now a thriving town with more 


'Ward’s Mexico in 1827, vol. ii, p. 151. 


86 EFFECT OF MINING ON AGRICULTURE. 


than seven thousand inhabitants, created by the discovery of 
Catorce, while about the same time, in the latter part of the last 
century, Durango rose into importance from the impulse given to 
the surrounding country by the labors of Zambrano at San Dimas 
and Guarisamey. Its population increased in twelve years from 
eight to twenty thousand; while whole streets and squares were 
added to its extent by the munificence of that fortunate miner. To 
the extreme north, Santa Eulalia gave rise to the town of Chihua- 
hua; Batopilas and El Parral became each the centre of a little 
circle of cultivation; Jesus Maria produced a similar effect; Mapimi, 
Cuencame, and Inde, a little more to the southward, served to 
develope the natural fertility of the banks of the river Nazas; 
while in the low hot regions of Sonora and Sinaloa, on the wes- 
tern coast, almost every place designated on the map as a town, 
was originally and generally is still a Real, or district for mines.””! 

Such is the case with a multitude of other mines which have 
formed the nuclew of population in Mexico. They created a mar- 
ket. The men who were at work in the vein, required the labor 
of men on the surface, for their support and maintenance. Nor 
was it food alone, that these laborers demanded. All kinds of 
artizans were wanted, and consequently, towns as well as farms 
grew upon every side. When these mining dependencies are once 
formed, as Baron Humboldt justly says, they often survive the 
mines that gave them birth; and turn to agricultural labors for 
the supply of other districts that industry which was formerly de- 
voted solely to their own region. 

Such are some of the internal advantages to be derived from 
mining in Mexico, especially when the mines are well and scien- 
tifically wrought, and when the miners are kept in proper order, 
well paid, and consequently enabled to purchase the best supplies 
in the neighboring markets. The mines are, in fact, to Mexico, 
what the manufacturing districts are to England and the United 
States ; and they must be considered the great support of the na- 
tional agricultural interests until Mexico becomes a commercial 
power, and sends abroad other articles besides silver, cochineal 
and vainilla, — the two last of which may be regarded as her mon- 
opolies. The operation of this tempting character of mines or of 
the money they create as well as circulate, is exhibited very re- 
markably in the rapidity with which the shores of California have 
been covered with towns and filled with industrious population. 


1 Ward, ut antea. 


RELATIVE PRODUCT OF SILVER FOR TEN YEARS. 87 


The tabular statement on the next page manifests the relative 
production, and improving or decreasing productiveness, of the 
several silver districts of Mexico, during the comparatively pacific 
period of ten years antecedent to the war with the United States 
which commenced in 1846. Whilst that contest lasted the agri- 
cultural and mineral interests and industry of the country of course 
suffered, and, consequently, it would be unfair to calculate the 
metallic yield of Mexico upon the basis of that epoch or of the 
years immediately succeeding. 

From the table it will be seen—omitting the fractions of dol- 
lars and of marks of silver—that the whole tax collected during 
these ten years from 1835 to 1844, amounted to $1,988,799, 
imposed on 15,911,194 marks of silver, the value of which was 
$131,267,354;—the mean yield of tax being $198,889, and of 
the silver, 1,591,119, in marks, which, estimated at the rate of 
eight dollars and a quarter, per mark, amounts to $13,126,735 
annually. 

Comparing the first and second periods of five years, we find a 
difference in the tax in favor of the latter, of $113,130, on 905, 042 
marks of silver ; showing that in the latter period $7,466,596 more 
were extracted from the Mexican mines than during the former. 

If we adopt the decimal basis of calculation the returns show, 
approximately, the following results for relative productiveness : 


In Zacatecas, 33.2, per ct. In Rosario,Cosala and O26 
Guanajuato, Bile. fhe ae Mazatlan, $$ per ct. 
San Luis Potosi, (Ct Sombrerete, re 
Pachuca, ae ha Parral, 18 ee 
Guadalajara, eye eaat cee’ Zimapan, PEC g 
Mexico, ARG St 66 Alamos, A 
Durango, 4ig « « Hermosillo, 26 6 «1 
Guadalupe y Calvo, 32¢ “ “ Oajaca, mite 
Chihuahua y Jesus Ave \« «~~ Tasco, fa! beans 

Maria, 32 


These statements do not include the precious metals pro- 
duced in Mexico, which were either clandestinely disposed of or 
used in the manufacture of articles of luxury. ! 


1 See report of the Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations for 1846, at page 139, 
of Documentos Justificativos. 


‘ 


vi) eo. 


RELATIVE PRODUCT OF SILVER. 


88 


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YIELD OF THE MINTS SINCE THE CONQUEST. &9 


MINT OF MEXICO 


Comprised in four sections: 


1st, comage of gold and silver from 


1690 to 1821; 2d, from 1822 to 1829; 3d, from 1830 to 1844; 


and 4th, coinage of copper only. 


1690 to 1822, or, in 132 years, in silver, $1,574,931,650.. 


1733 to 1822, gold, 


1822 to 1829, silver, 
4 (5 gold, 
1830 to 1844, silver, 
6¢ 4 gold, 
1814 to 1844, copper, 


Total, 
From this must be deducted on account of 
recoinage, &c. &c., according to state- 
ment of the mint, 


And to this last sum must be added for 
gold coinage from 1609 to 1732, not in- 
cluded in the previous statement, 


Total coinage of mint in the city of Mexico 
to 1844, 

From 1535 to 1690 — it is ccd ‘let 
there were coined in the mint of Mexico 
alone: 

Gold, 
Silver, 
Total, F 
Add the preceding result fea 1690 to 1844, 


Total coinage in mint of city of Mexico 
from 1535 to 1844, 


1..10 
60,018,880..0..00 
23,179,384..3..03° 

4,392,502..0..00 
18,829,250..4..02 
1,430,258. .0..00 
5,323,765..0..09 » 
$1,688,105,960..2..00 


12,195,941..0..00 
$1,675,909,749..1..08 


. -24,23'7,766..0..00 


$1,700,147,515..1..08 


€ 31,000,000 
620,000,000 


651,000,000 
1,700,147,515 


$2.351,147,515 


MINT OF CHIHUAHUA 


Comprised in three sections: 


Ist, coinage of silver 1811 to 1814; 


2d, of silver and gold from 1832 to 1844; 3d, of copper only. 


1811 to 1814, silver, 
1832 to 1844, . : Bh Kahn 

c< c< gold, 
1833 to 1835, . copper, 


Total, 


$3,603,660..0..00 
3,026,215..3..08 
368,248..0..00 
50,428..5..00 


1$7,048,552..0..08 


" These calculations are made in dollars, reales, or pieces of the value of 123 


cents, and medios, or pieces of the value of 6} cents. 
L 


90 YIELD OF MINTS. 


MINT OF DURANGU 


Comprised in two sections: Ist, coinage, from 1811 to 1829; and 
2d, 1830 to 1844. 


Heil to 1829, - 2 | Silvera .  $10,046,503..4..00 
1830 to 1844, . : SUC ie . 11,769,410..3..09 
1830 to 1844, a old, : : 1,986,069..3..06 

Total, .. . 2. « % >. G23s80IOGee aes 


MINT OF GUADALAJARA 


-Comprised in four sections: Ist, coinage of silver and gold from 
1812 to 1821; 2d, ditto from 1822 to 1829; 3d, ditto 1830 to 
1844 ; 4th, of copper. 


1812 to 1821, ot Siena. : $2,058,388..2..03 
of Ee ; golds 61,581..1..03 
1822. to 1829, . heusilvens: i. : 5,619,384..4..00 
cc arts Dai .gold, . -. >. 9082.20 saaraG 
1830 to 1844, .. = asilvier: saan. 10,162,947..4..06 
a Cott scold. : 120,805..5..01 
1831 to 1836, << * ‘capper, 61,217..4..06 


Total, . . . ..: . $18,266,070 rae 


MINT OF GUADALUPE Y CALVO 


Established by a grant of congress in 1840, but only commenced 
its operations in 1844. 


1844, : : ; silver, ; : ; $338,124 
fe : : : se COI et : : 95,004 
Total, 0) ee) Woe ees 


MINT OF GUANAJUATO 


*, 


Comprised in three sections: Ist, coinage from 1812 to 1821; 2d, 
silver and gold from 1822 to 1829; 3d, ditto from 1830 to 1844. 


1812 to 1821, avon Silver ss Mie : $ 602,575..0..00 
1822 to 1829, « : ee ead oe ‘ . 9,652.8 16, 200 
93 f } ale cold. ; A 142,520..0..00 
1830 to 1844, . . Silver, . : . 42,742°850).0:-00 
te ; fa old, ; : 4,228,180..0..00 
Total . . . . .. $50,368,940 5a. 


MINT OF SOMBRERETE. | 
1810 to 1812 inclusive, . coined in silver, . $1,561,249..2..00 


rae | 
* i ‘4 


i 
7 


COINAGE IN 1844. 91 


MINT OF SAN LUIS POTOSI @ 


Comprised in three sections: 1st, coinage from 1827 to 1829; 2d, 
from 1830 to 1844; and 3d, copper. 

Sei, t07LS29,. . . silver, ; sh 2 SOLIS ;.0 200 

Mea S44 |, 15,580,010..2..00 

#527 to 1835, . COP pelamare : 23,014..a-.00 


APO tale yee tren gone es as $18 554,945..5..00 
MINT OF TLALPAM. 
1828, 1829 and part of 1830, coined in silver, . $959,116..7..00 
es ef gold, . . 203,544..0..00 
Votal, Ve Jie PL LCZ COON Ce 
MINT OF ZACATECAS 


Comprised in four sections: 1st, coinage from 14th of November, 
1810 to 1820; 2d, from 1821 to 1829; 3d, from 1830 to 1844; 
and 4th, copper. 


TS10;t0-1820,. -. Reve eSILVerse 0a: .  $14,450,943..6..00 
20L, (Qo ae 31,838,470..4..00 
1830 to 1844, ee : , 74,085,951..7..00 
1821 to 1829, . . copper, 107,949. .4..00 


Total . . . . . $120,483,315..5..00 


TABLE of the Gold and Silver coined in the eight Mints of the Meai- 
can Republic from 1st January, 1844, to 1st January, 1845, according 
to official reports. 


MINTS. GOLD. SILVER. TOTAL. 
UA RUA. 3. 6... ee ses o oe $61,632..0..0 | $290,000..0.. 0 $351 ,632..0..0 
MOAI, tae 6s 006.0010 05,000 0 00 27,508..0..0 213,362..3.. 0 240,870..3..0 
Guadalajara .....2e..caces 5,282..5..1 950,032..6.. 3 955,315..3..4 
Guadalupe y Calvo.......--| 95,004..0..0 338,124..0.. 0 433,128..0..0 
Guanajuato Meer lersicid celerere: <i 441, 808..0 .0 | 4,219,900..0.. 0 4,661,708. 0..0 
MeXico ........ se eee ee eee 30,1725.0.50)15688,156,:45. 8 1,724,328..4..8 
San Luis [POTOSI S 5 Het Se oy eee 936,525..5.. 0 936,525..5..0 
“ZESEIECES) 6 0 0B Cato SES ORT RE Cee Caen 4,429,353..4.. 0 4,429,353..4..0 

MROUAISCS ayaton clstoate cota chersss | 9667,406..5..1 | 13,065,454..6..11 | $13,732,861..4..0) 


92 COINAGE. 


COINAGE of Mexico from 1535 to 1849, inclusive, omitting the frac- 
tions of a dollar. 


MINTS. SILVER. | GOLD. COPPER. TOTAL. 


1535 to 1690. 


City of Mexico...... $620,000,000 | $31,000,000 |........... $651,000,600 | 
1690 to 1844. 
City of Mexico...... 1,606,225 ,922 88,597,827 | $5,323,765 1,700,147,514 
1811 to 1844. 
Wlimawahua.. sos 6,629,875 368,248 50,428 7,048,551 
1811 to 1844. 
PUPA COs 26. eg. 0s 21,815,913 1,986,069 |... 2.2.0 sien 23,801,982 
1812 to 1844. 
Guadalajara........ 17,340,720 364,629 . 61,217 18,266,566 
1844. 
Guadalupe y Calvo.. 338,124 95,004. «|\..c eee 433,128 
1812 to 1844. 
Giianajtato...... 50,998,241 4,370,100" |\.5 eames 55,368,941 
1827 to 1844. 
San Luis Potosi..... eas) Woaethaoued cor 23,517 18,554,945 
1810, 1811, and 1812. 
POMMPECTCLE . . 2. 5.0' Tj 5B15 2A is & « cfevaleyeta oto pe cea tener 1,561,249 
1828, 1829, and 1830 
MGV crocs een dare ss 959,116 203,544 | <9 2. aerate 1,162,660 
1810 to 1844. 
ZAC ALC CAS #806 vei ae 120,375,366 |... ctacice ces 107,949 120,483,315 
All _the . Mexican |) 
mints, from the end 
of 1844 to the end 
of 1849, at the rate ; 
at cy GUNG Calla are | faeees abel tau AUR] ons Soe: 70,000,000 
annum, which was 
the approximate to- 
tal coinage in 18441 
ANGLAIS: cores 2s oo seis $2,465,275,954 | $126,986,021 | $5,566,876 | $2,667,828,851 
RESUME. 
Silver coinage from 1535 to 1844, inclusive . $2,465,275,954 
Gold do 1535 to 1844, do : 126,986,021 
Copper do 1811 to 1844, do 5,566,876 


General coinage, from 1845 to 1849, both inclusive 70,000,000 


Total coinage of Mexico to ee time, or in 
314 years. : ; : t . $2,667,828,851 


Or, avoiding fractions, nearly $8, 500,000 yearly. 


| 1The actual coinage of all the mints in the republic in 1844 amounted, in fact, to 
the sum of $13,732,861; but we assume $14,000,000 as a fair annual average for a 
period of several years. 


CHAPEHE Var. 


INCOME OF NEW SPAIN 1809 — EXPENSES OF NEW SPAIN 1809. — 
MINERAL PRODUCTIONS — MILITARY FORCE — AGRICULTURE — 
MANUFACTURES. — COMMERCE — EXPORTS — IMPORTS. — PRE- 
SENT COMMERCE — IMPORTS — EXPORTS. — NINETEEN YEARS 
TRADE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. — CHARAC- 
TER OF IMPORTS— CHARACTER OF EXPORTS— SILVER EXPORTED. 
— FAIRS IN MEXICO. — THE FUTURE PROSPECTS AND POSITION 
OF MEXICO —NOT A COMMERCIAL COUNTRY. — RAILWAY FROM 
VERA CRUZ TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 


FINANCIAL AND PropuctTive Conpitrion oF Mexico or NEw 
SPAIN BEFORE HER REVOLUTION, AND AT THE PRESENT Day. 


In order to exhibit a connected and comparative view of the 
financial and commercial condition of Mexico, we have assembled 
in this section a number of tables which exhibit, at a glance, the state 
of New Spain in relation to her mines, agriculture, manufactures, 
commerce, and the income and expenses of the viceroyalty in 1809. 


TaBULAR STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE INCOME AND EXPENSES 
oF THE VicEROYALTY OF Mexico 1n 1809, ANTECEDENT TO 
THE Revotution—Its Mines, Acricutturre, Manurac- 
TURES AND COMMERCE. 


Ist. Income. 


Branches of income. Clear product in dollars. 
Duties on assay, : : $e 2.006 

oe om gold and bullion, -. ; : 5 24,908 

<¢ on silver, : : ’ , 2,086,565 

paeon vajila, . ; : : : 25,716 
Coining of gold and silver, : , : 1,628,259 
Tributes, : : : ; s : ar lehooe Own 
Taxes, (alcabalas) . : ‘ : : , 2,644,618 
Pulque, (a national beverage made of aloe,) . 750,462 
Powder, . : : : 370,829 
Lotteries, . } : : ; 109,002 
Novenos, ; : : : : : 192,333 
Saleable and remisable offices, : ; i 27,106 
Stamped paper, } : ; , : 64,900 
Medias anatas. . ; : : , : , 37.338 


Amount carried forward, . . . . $9,174,493 


. : 
94 EXPENSES OF NEW SPAIN 1809. 


Amount brought forward, : : . ; . $9,174,493 

Chancery, : : 1,035 i 
Cock fights, : : : ; 33,322 
Liquor shops, . : : 22,883 
Teed: : : : é : 31,814 
Salt works and duties on dally : ; 132,982 
Licenses for ballast in Vera Cruz, 5 ; : : 29 
Bakeries, liquor shops in do. . : A 11,989 
Fortifications, 5 : , : ‘ : : 8,003 
Donations, : : 3 . A ; . 1,480 
do. for war purposes, . : ‘ 646,459 
Caldos, . ; : : ‘ : ; : 36,181 
Dyes and vainilla, ‘ : : : ‘ : 45,740 
Almojarifazgos, : ‘ ; ; : 275,894 
Aprovechamientos, *e : 57,967 
Small incomes, ; ; ‘ : 76,151 
Balances of accounts, . : A 24,989 
Bulls of Santa Cruzada, (Roman Catholic ie 271,828 
Ecclesiastical tithes, 3 : : 30,320 
do. eidlios : : ; 4,686 
Medias anatas y mesadas id, . ‘ : 50,540 
Vacantes mayores y menores,_ . ‘ 112,733 
Spanish quicksilver, . : : : : A74,722 
German ec : : ; ‘ 42,583 
Freight of quicksilver, : ‘ : ‘ : 2,107 
@ardss,. . : f : ; 148,861 
obacco,, > . : : : . -. d,92epeee 
A per cent. of eae of efanloyes 25,632 
Gross income, . . . . . $15,693,895 

From this should be deducted for salaries and 

expenses of administration, . $596,260 1,244,199 


For donations received this year, but which 
should not be counted as income, $647,939 


Net income, . . . «2. Sees 


2d. EXPENSES IN THE YEAR 1809. 


Expenses of fortification, ; $800,000 


Pay of army, veteran troops, ideal ae San Blas 
powder erones and other expenses, ; 3,000,000 


Amount carried forward, . . $3,800,000 


MINERAL PRODUCTIONS. 95 


Amount brought forward, ; ; : - $3,800,000 
Pay of Oidores, and aie persons employed in judi- 
cial functions and measures for the conversion of > 250,000 
the Indians, 


Pensions, : : ; ; : 200,000 
Hospital expenses, oan of Fries, : : : - 400,800 
Return of imposts, : : : : . 1,496,000 

$6,146,800 
Amount of Income, . : ; $14,449,696 


cao lixpenses, % j ‘ 6,146,800 


Balance, f : . $8,302,896 

This was then the inet income of Mexico in the year 1809. 
The same amount may be considered as the usual yearly revenue 
from the close of the eighteenth century, and if we deduct a half 
of this sum as being afterwards expended on this side of the Atlan- 
tic, it may be calculated that about four millions of dollars were 
transmitted to Spain annually. 


3d. Minerat PropuctTions. 

In order to judge what regions of New Spain were most pro- 
ductive in mineral wealth and their relative productiveness, we will 
insert the value of the royal dues upon silver, amounting in all to 
the rate of 103 per cent. in 1795, in which year $24,593,481 were 
coined in gold and silver at the Mexican mint. 


San Luis Potosi, : ' ; 96,000 

Zacatecas, . : : ; . 69,000 

Guanajuato, . : : 67,000 

Rosario, . ‘ . 45,000 | Marks of silver, — 
Bolafos, : 41,000 | which may be esti- 
Mexico, : : ; : . 36,000 + mated at eight dol- 
Guadalajara, . ; 19,000 | lars and a quarter 
Durango, . 4 ‘ “4 oo,000 ja per mark. 
Zimapan, : : : ; 10,000 

Sombrerete, : : ; . 7,000 

Chihuahua, ° . : ; : 7,000 


All the mines in the Spanish possessions consumed annually 
30,000 quintals of quicksilver, which, at the rate of $50, (at which 
they might be calculated, on an average of years,) amounts to a 
million and a half. 

When fifteen millions were annually coined the king received 6 
per ct. upon that sum; and when the amount exceeded 18 millions, 
scarcely 7. This difference was owing to the rules and system of 
the mint, in which there were the same expenses in coining from 


? 


96 MILITARY FORCE — AGRICULTURE — MANUFACTURES. 


twenty to twenty-four millions that were incurred in coining fifteen 
millions. In 1809 $26,172,982 were issued, in gold and silver, 
from the Mexican mint, and this, with the exception of 1804 and 
1805, is the largest amount of coinage either under the Vice- 
royal or Republican government. 


Ath. Mirirary Force BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 


Veteran troops, : : : 7,083 
Garrison troops and mcerenal Sean ' ‘ 595 
Garrison troops and guards. Internal prov- 
inces, . : : ; ; : ee 
Provincial militia, . : : i . 18,884 
29,661 
The maintenance of these cost annually, : : $1,800,000 
The fort of St. Carlos at Peroté absorbed, : : 200,000 
Costs of fortifications and casual expenses, . : 2,000,000 
$4,000,000 


: 5th. AGRICULTURE. 


This branch of industry produced a sum equal to the mines ; that 
is to say — from twenty-two to twenty-four millions. The follow- 
ing calculation is founded upon the basis of the diezmos or tithes 
of the several bishoprics, which may be regarded as the best 
territorial measure. 


Bishoprics. Product of Agriculture in 1790. Diezmos. 
Mexico, . : : $8,500,C00 , : 850,000 
Puebla, : : . 4,400,000 : : . 440,000 
Valladolid, . ; Z 4,000,000. : . 400,000 
Oajaca, : ‘ . 1,000,000 . ; - 100,000 
Guadalajara, j : 3,400,000 . ; 5 340,000 
Durango, ; : . 1,200,000 ; : - 120,000 
In 6 Bishoprics, ; $22,500,000 : : . 2,250,000 


6th. MANUFACTURES. 


The cotton and woollen factories, of the most important and ex- 
tensive character, were those of Puebla and of Queretaro. In the 
latter place, in twenty factories, and 300 small establishments, 
46,000 arrobas of wool were consumed, out of which 6,000 pieces 
of cloth, or, 226,000 varas (yards) ;— 280 pieces of jerguetilla or 
39,000 yards (varas);— 200 pieces of baize, or, 15,000 varas ; 
161 pieces of baizes and coarse woollens, or, 18,000 varas; the 


COMMERCE — EXPORTS — IMPORTS. 97 
value of all which manufactures exceeded $600,000. In Queretaro 
there were moreover consumed 200,000 lbs. of cotton in the manu- 
facture of cotton stuffs and rebosos, or shawls usually worn by the 
women throughout Mexico. The factories in the Intendency of 
Puebla, comprehended in that city, Cholula, Tlascala and Guejo- 
cingo, produced fabrics, in peaceful times, to the value of a million 


and a half of dollars. Besides these there were other factories in 


various parts of the country. 


Tth. CoMMERCE. 


The imports through Vera Cruz, before the war, aver- 


aging one year with another, exceeded, . $19,000,000 
The exports, inclusive of silver, 21,000,000 
Difference in favor of exports, 2,000,000 
Total of mercantile exchanges, 40,000,000 
The above exportations may be divided into — 
Silver, . . ; $14,000,000 
Agricultural products, 7,000,000. 


CLASSIFICATION OF EXPoRTs. 


Weight in arrobas. 


Value in dollars. 


Cochineal, 24,500 $1,715,000 
Sugar, . 500,000 1,500,000 
Vainilla, stg ae : 60,000 
Indigo, 60,000 : 2,700,000 
Sarsaparilla, 20,000 90,000 
Pepper from Tabasco, 24,000 . 40,000 
Flour, é : aan 500,000 
Tanned leather, 80,000 
Sundries, 315,000 

$7,000,000 
Add export of precious metals, 14,000,000 


$21,000,000 


98 COMMERCE — EXPORTS — IMPORTS. 


CLASSIFICATION OF IMPORTS. 


Wine, . i 25 to 30,000 barrels : $1,000,000 
Paper, ; : 125,000 reams, . 2 : 375,000 
Cinnamon, . - 100,000 lbs. . : - 400,000 
Brandy, :« : 32,000 barrels, . . 1,000,000 
Saffron, ; : 17,000 lbs. . : ; . 350,000 
Tron, : : . 50,000 quintals, : ; 600,000 © 
Steel, . ; : 6,000 ce : . 110,000 
Wax, : : . 26,000 arrobas, : : 500,000 
Cacao, . : , 20,000 fanegas, . . 1,100,000 
Clothing, hardware and other manufactures, . . 14,000,000 
$19,335,000 


From a statement published by the Consulado of Vera Cruz 
it appears that the Importation From Spain in 1802 was as 
follows : — 


In national vessels, . f : $11,539,219 

In foreign an : : ; 8,060,781 oo eee 
EXxporTATION in the same year, . : . - 33,866,219 
Difference in favor of exports, . spe aie : $14,266,219 


Commerce of the metropolis, . : : : $53,466,219 


Importation from America, . : : ; . $1,607,792 
Exportation for See : : : ; . 4,581,148 


General importation . : ; : : . $21,207,792 
General exportation, : 3 : : , 38,447,367 


Total trade of Vera Cruz in 1802, ‘ ; $59,655,159! 

From this view of the anti-revolutionary cendition of Mexican 
commerce and financial interests, we pass properly to the examina- 
tion of the same affairs at the present day. In order to judge this 
subject fairly, however, we have adopted the commercial standard 
of the year preceding the war with the United States. During and 
since that period, the commercial results of the country must natur- 
ally have been so greatly disturbed as to afford altogether inade- 
quate tests. 


1 Zavala’s Historia de las Revoluciones de Mejico. Tome l. 


PRESENT COMMERCE — IMPORTS — EXPORTS. 99 


CoMMERCE AT THE PreEsEnT Day. 


Imports and exports of the Mexican republic for the year ending 
on the Ist of January, 1845, calculated on the duties collected at 
the maritime and frontier custom houses. 


1st. Imports. 
Capital or value of 
imported articles to 
which these duties 


Duties according to tariff. Duties collected. | correspond. 

At 40 per ct., there were collected, $ 200..45 $ 501..12 
Rao0 . '! a re 5,999, 282..87 19,997,609..56 
(230 ‘. provisions, : : 14,592..98 48 ,6438..26 
« 30 “ timber, : : 3,039..49 11,774..96 
eps : ; : ; 152,916..18 611,664..72 
ry bea, ‘ ; ; 4 6,190..11 49,520..83 
ao jewelry, : : 1,171..22 19,520..33 

30 ‘ advanced to the trea- 
sury for permission to import 20,000 : 
quintals of cotton, ; : : 120,000..00 400,000..00 


$6,297,886..30 $21,139, 234..83 


2d. Exports. 


Value of exports to 
Export which these du- 
Duties according to tariff. duties collected. ties correspond. 


At6 per cent., on export of gold and 
silver coin, . $524,349..631  $8,'739,160..58 


Reda ** on silver coin, . . 2..08 59..42 
eee ct on uncoined silver, 22,949..23 458,984..45 
Reg. Sk in Vera Cruz on ditto, 12,687..60 °  181,251..42 
al eal in Mazatlan ‘“* 103,636..81 1,381,824..13 
“Oh ila at do. oongold, 14,479..144 160,879..39 
ccs) ia on silver, : : 48..59 511..39 
GE atk on wrought gold, 22..36 344..00 
Ot on wrought silver, . 658..11 9,401..57 
sont hs on dye wood, . 6,025..14 100,419..00 


Resumé No. 1. 
Export of money, . é : $524,351..712  $8,'739,220..00 
‘¢ of uncoined gold and silver, 153,801..374 2,183,450..79 
‘¢ of wrought gold and silver, 6,680..47 9,145.57 


Total export of the precious metals, $678,833..56 $10,952,416..36 
Export of dye woods, : 5 6,025..14 100,419..00 


—oe ee 


Total) gee ¢s .. .-9$684,858..70  $11,032;835:..36 


100 TRADE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES. 


AND MEXICO. 


CompPaRATIVE Resumé No. 2. 
Value of the imports into the republic, 
i ‘‘ exports from the republic, . 
Excess of imports above exports, 
ComMPARATIVE Resumé No. 3. 
Duties. 
Imports, ; $6,297,686..30 
Deduct $557,76..16 ehaited to the 
Vera Cruz custom noGae for in- 
come of previous years not col- 
lected in 1844, and which sum 
is calculated on 30 per cent. 
duties, 557,767..16 


14 


Value of exports deducted, 


Effective excess of imports in 1844, 


CoMPARATIVE Resumé No. 


$5,739,919.. 


4. 


There were coined in the Mexican mints in 1844, 


There were exported in money, . 


Difference in favor of the mint, 


$21,139, 234..83 
11,032,835..36 


$10,106, 399..47 


Value of Articles. 
$21, 139,234..86 


1,859, 223..86 


eS ee @ 


$19, 280,011..00 
11,032,835..36 


$8,247,175..64 


» $13,'732,861..04 


8,739, 220..00 


$4,993,641..04 


As the commercial relations of the United States with Mexico, 
of course concern us most intimately, and are those in which we 
take the deepest interest, we have formed from official data in the 
reports of our Secretaries of the Treasury the following table of our 


mercantile intercourse from 1829 to 1849: 


CoMMERCE BETWEEN MeExico AND THE UNITED STATES FROM 


1829 ro 1849. 


Imports from Mexico. 


For year ence 30th Sept., 1829 $5,026,761 
c “« 1830 ‘5,235,241 
as c “ 1832 4,293,954 
«6 ce es 1833 5,452,818 

c“ c “ 1834 8,066,068 

“ cc “ 1835 9,490,446 

6 6 “  =61836 5,615,819 

“ “ “1837 5,654,002 

i: 66 Fahl erste) 3,127,153 


Exports to Mexico. 
$2 331,151 
4,837,458 
3,467,541 
5,408,091 
5,265,053 
9,029,221 
6,041,635 
3,880,323 
2,187,362 


CHARACTER OF IMPORTS. 


Imports from Mexico. 


101 


Exports to Mexico. 


For year ending 30th Sept., 1839 3,500,707 2,164,097 

aé ae 6c. 11840 4,175,001 2,015,341 

ef es 1 1841 3,484,957 2,036,620 

ee Be “1842 1,996,694 1,534,233 
Last quarter of ’42 and first 

two quarters of 1843 2,782,406 1,471,937 

For year ending 30th June, 1844 2,387,002 1,794,833 

e ef Co) 1845 1,702,936 1,152,331 

<¢ war year, “¢ 61846 1,836,621 1,531,180 

‘<e awan year, ce LSAT 481,749 238,004 

gf BC c -1848 1,581,247 4,054,452 


By this table, covering the commerce between the United States 
and Mexico for nineteén years, we observe that from having a trade 
worth, in wports and exports, about nineteen millions and a half, 
in 1835, it is now reduced, in years undisturbed by war or the re- 
sults of war, to not more than two millions and a half or three 
millions. As commerce usually regulates itself, in spite of per- 
sonal or national prejudices, this fact is doubtless attributable to 
the lower rates at which European manufacturers and producers 
are enabled to afford their merchandise in the Mexican market. 
Nevertheless, we doubt not that the trade might be improved con- 
siderably by certain modifications of the tariff, especially upon the 
article of cotton, which as will be seen in our notices of the manu- 
facturing establishments of Mexico is largely demanded from 
abroad in consequence of the failure from personal causes to pro- 
duce an adequate supply within that republic. 

The Imports or Mexico consist chiefly of the following articles: 

Linens; five-eighths of which are received from Germany, while 
three-eighths are of Irish, Dutch, French and North American 
manufacture. ‘The German linens are chiefly obtained from Silesia, 
and the finest kinds are in great demand. 

Cotton goods are imported largely from England, the United 
States and France. 

The importation of the best qualities of s1zKs reaches annually 
about one million of dollars in value, and they are the productions 
of France and Germany; about three-fourths of the trade, in this 
article, belonging exclusively to France. 

For her Wootten Faprics Mexico relies upon England and 
France, though Germany participates in the importation of some 
qualities. 

CrnamMentaL Wares, Miuttnery or articles of personal and 
fashionable luxury are obtained from France. 


102 CHARACTER OF EXPORTS — SILVER EXPORTED. 


Genoa and Bordeaux furnish Paper; — Guassware, window 
glass and looking glasses are imported from the United States, 
England and France, but the finer kinds are exceedingly rare and 
costly, in consequence of the risk of transportation through the 
country by the present imperfect modes of carriage over bad roads. 
Tron ware, of all kinds, and iron machinery for manufacturing or 
mining purposes, are imported from the United States, England, 
France, Germany and Spain. 

QUICKSILVER, one of the most important articles for the miners, 
is brought in French and Italian ships from Idria and Almaden. 
Wine, Branpy and Gin are consumed from France, Germany, 
Spain, Portugal and Holland; while fine liqueurs are largely im- 
ported from France and the Dutch West Indies. 

Cacao is imported from several of the Séuthern American na- 
tions ; — Orn from France, Gibraltar and Genoa; — and Wax, of 
which about 700,000 dollars worth is annually consumed, is re- 
ceived from the United States or Cuba. Salted and dried Fish or 
Flesh is chiefly monopolized by our traders. 

The principal Exports from Mexico have always been and still 
are, CocHINEAL, and the Precious Merats in bars and coined. 
Of the latter of these native products it is estimated by reliable au- 
thorties that one half is remitted to England and that the balance is 
divided between the United States and the continental states of 
Europe. ‘The greater portion of silver is exported from Tampico, 
which is the nearest vent for the mineral wealth of Guanajuato, 
Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and the principal mining districts of 
northern Mexico. Large sums are also sent from Vera Cruz and 
from Mazatlan on the western coast, as will be seen by reference 
to our tabular statement of the value of exports. In 1845, before 
the war with the United States broke out, and when Mexican trade 
was in its ordinary condition, ten millions nine hundred and thirty- 
two thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars worth of the pre- 
cious metals, coined and uncoined, left these several ports through 
the regular channels. But as we have no means of exactly esti 
mating the contraband exportation, which is very large, we may 
safely calculate that at least five millions more found their way 
clandestinely to Europe and the United States. Of the regular 
and lawful exportation, eight millions seven hundred and _thirty- 
nine thousand two hundred and twenty dollars were coined; two 
millions one hundred and eighty-three thousand four hundred and 
fifty, in uncoined gold and silver ; and nine thousand seven hundred 
and forty-five, in wrought silver and gold. 


FAIRS IN MEXICO. 103 


The exportation of Cocu1nEAt is estimated to range from seven 
hundred thousand to one million of dollars worth ;— and, when 
we add to these articles, Dye woop, Vainilla, Sarsaparilla, Jalap, 
Hides, horns, and a small quantity of Pepper, Indigo, and Coffee, 
together with an occasional invoice of sugar sent from the west 
coast to Columbia and Peru, we may consider the list of mer- 
chantable Mexican exports as completely ended. 


In all the Mexican towns and cities, and in many of the large 
villages there are weekly markets held at which a considerable 
trade for the neighborhood is carried on; and, in addition to these, 
there are nine great Farrs at which immense quantities of foreign 
manufactures are disposed of. These are held at the following 
places and times: 

1. The Fair at Aguas Calientes—begins on the 20th of Novem- 
ber and lasts 10 days. 

2. The Fair at Allende in Chihuahua —begins on the 4th of 


- October, and lasts 8 days. 


3. The Fair at Chilapa in Mexico — begins on the 2d of Jan- 
uary, and lasts 8 days. 

4, The Fair at Chilpanzingo — begins on the 21st of December, 
and lasts 8 days. | | 

5. The Fair at Huejutla — begins on the 24th of December, and 
lasts 4 days. | 

6. The Fair at Ciudad Guerrero—begins on the 12th of Decem- 
ber, and lasts 6 days. 

7. The Fair at Saltillo — begins on the 29th of September, and 
lasts 8 days. 

8. The Fair at San Juan de los Lagos— begins on the 5th 
of December, and lasts 8 days. | 

9. The Fair at Tenancingo — begins on the 6th of February, 
and lasts 10 days. 

It will not be considered singular when we recollect the colonial 
and subsequent revolutionary history of Mexico, that she has not 
fostered her shipping and become a commercial country. The 
original emigration to New Spain was not maritime in its charac- 
ter. The Spanish trade was carried on by the mother country in 
Spanish vessels exclusively, and these ships were not owned by or 
permitted to become the permanent property of the colonists. The 
settlers who emigrated retired from the coasts to the interior where 
their interests either in the soil, cities, or mines, immediately ab- 
sorbed their attention. It was not to be expected that the Indians, 


104 THE FUTURE PROSPECTS AND POSITION OF MEXICO. 


who could scarcely be converted into agriculturists, would engage 
in the more dangerous life of sailors. The whole industry of the 
foreign: population was thus diverted at once from the sea board, 
and the consequence was, that notwithstanding the territory of 
New Spain is bounded on the east and west by the two great 
oceans of the world, those oceans never became the nurses of a 
hardy race of mariners whose labors would, in time, have fostered 
the internal productiveness of their country by creating a com- 
merce. We are not astonished, therefore, to find that the whole 
marine of Mexico, on the shores of the Gulf, is confined to a petty 
coasting trade from port to port, and that her sea-going people are 
rather fishermen than sailors. On the west coast, however, the 
maritime character of the people has somewhat improved, and a 
very considerable trade has been carried on by Mexican vessels, in 
native productions, not only with Central America, Columbia, Peru 
and Chili, but even with the Sandwich Islands. 

The geographical position of Mexico, when considered in con- 


nexion with its agricultural riches and metallic wealth, is perhaps . 


the most remarkable in the world. A comparatively narrow strip 
of land, possessing all the climates of the world, is placed midway 
between the two great bodies of the northern and southern con- 
tinents of America, and midway, also, between the continents of 
Iurope and Asia. In its central region it extends only five or 
six hundred miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific, while, at 
its southern end, it is swiftly crossed by means of its rivers or by 
railways, which, it is alleged, may be easily constructed. In the 
midst of this unrivalled territory, in the lap of the great plateau or 
table land, and far removed from unhealthy coasts, lies the beauti- 
ful city of Mexico, a natural focus of commerce, wealth and civili- 
zation. Such a picture of natural advantages cannot but strike us 
with admiration and hope. If ever there was a capital destined by 
nature to form the centre of a great nation, if not to grasp at least 
a large share of the North American, European, South American 
and’ Oriental trade, it unquestionably is the city of Mexico. Raised 
as she is far above the level of the sea and inaccessible by rivers, the 
development of her destiny may be postponed until genius shall 
inlay her valleys and ravines with railways, and thus connect her 
forever with the two coasts. But can we doubt that this me- 


chanical miracle will be performed? It is not for us to say whether | 


it shall be the work of the present generation, or of the present race 
in Mexico. It seems to be the law of nature that nations, like 
men, must advance or be trodden under foot. The vast army of 


NOT A COMMERCIAL COUNTRY. 105 


industrious mankind is ever marching. Nor can we doubt that 
unless Mexico learns wisdom from the past, and, abandoning the 
paltry political strife which has hitherto crushed her industrial 
energy, follows in the footsteps of modern civilization, her fate will 
be sure and speedy. The attention of the world is now riveted 
upon this region as the natural mistress of the Atlantic and Pacific. 
If Mexico covers the eastern and western slopes of her Cordillera 
with an intelligent, progressive and peaceful population, invited 
from abroad to amalgamate with her own races under the opera- 
tion of permanent laws and wholesome government, the change 
may be slow and her power may be preserved. But if she will 
persist in the mad career of folly which has characterized her since 
her independence, she will not be able to resist the gradual and 
inevitable encroachments from the north, from Europe, and from 
the new establishments which are rapidly growing up on the Isth- 
mus of Panama. ‘These new foundations, based on the incalculable 
wealth of California will be fostered by means hitherto undreamed 
of in the wildest commerce of the world, and unless Mexico shall 
avail herself of their salutary monitions they will finally absorb both 
her people and her nationality. 


RAILWAY FROM VERA CRUZ TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 


Norte.—In relation to the various modes of transit across the Isthmus of Panama 
or Tehuantepec, we do not deem it advisable to offer any speculations, at present, 
(April, 1850.) When reconnoissances of both routes have been completed and pub- 
lished, under the sanction of able and disinterested engineers, the world, which is 
so largely concerned in this subject, will be better able to decide as to their relative 
advantages. Both routes mav ultimately be required, when the augmented com- 
merce of the west coast of North and South America and the East Indies demands a 
speedy access to those regions. In the meantime, however, I subjoin the following 
extract from a report made by an officer of our army, during the war with Mexico, 
whilst our forces were still occupying the capital, in March, 1848. It apparently 
demonstrates at least the practicability of a railway from Vera Cruz to the valley: 

“Of the different routes proposed, the one following the ridge which separates 
the towns or the two rivers of Tomepa and Obatejua, passing near or through the 
towns or villages of Acanisica, St. Bartolomé, St. Martin, Nopalpica, and Tlascala, 
is not only the shortest and most level, but offers the fewest difficulties to overcome. 
This route does not offer the slightest obstruction, with the exception of crossing 
the river San Juan, till you reach the Boca del Monte, seventeen leagues from Vera 
Cruz; thence pursuing its course along the sides of the same almost continuous 
ridge, with an ascent of not more than one upon fifty, till you reach the deep Bar- 
ranca of Chichiquila, twenty-three leagues from Vera Cruz; the road is thence 
across the Barranca, on embankments and stone walls, the materials for this pur- 
pose being plentiful and on the ground; the ten leagues from the Barranca of Chi- 
chiquila to the highest point of elevation, form the most difficult and costly section 
of the road. It must, however, be here taken into consideration, that at this very 
point of the road there are found in the immediate vicinity twelve Indian vil- 
lages, capable of furnishing a large number of efficient workmen, who would be 

N 


106 RAILWAY FROM VERA CRUZ TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. 


willing and even anxious to labor at the very low price of 374 cents per day, in the 
most healthy climate of the country. 

“From this point of highest elevation, the route followed, reduces the distance 
to the city of Mexico to 37 leagues—making the whole distance from Vera Cruz to 
the capital not more than 73 leagues. 

‘¢ Tt must be borne in mind, that in making the following estimate, we have taken 
into consideration the extreme low rate of wages in the country, as compared with 
the wages of the journeymen laborers in the United States; and this alone must 
make an immense difference in cost of works of the kind executed in Mexico, 
whenever we base our estimates upon the costs of similar works in England or in 
our own country. 

ESTIMATE OF COST. 


Section. Leagues. Dollars. 
Ist. 3 Grading from Vera Cruz to the foot of the small ridge of 

the Molino de Ricato, over a sandy soil, easy to exca- 

vate and transport superstructure, . 125,000 
2d. 2 Whole cost of the two leagues, from the tase pais te the 

river San Juan, nearly level ground, including super- 

structure and a stone bridge across this river, ; 95,000 
3d. 12 Twelve leagues from the river San Juan to Boca del 

Monte, : 450,000 
4th. 64 Six and a half leasaes from Baad del Monte to the Tae 

ranca of Chichiquila—superstructure, . E 5 275,000 
Sth 63 Six and a half leagues across the Barranca of Chichiquila. 


This section is the most difficult and costly part of the 
road, and will cost over $300,000 per mile—say, super- 


structure, ; : . 2,500,000 
6th. 4 . The next four leagues o the mailer of St. lence. : 245,000 
7th. 343 From the foot of the Sierra Madre, through the northern 


part of the valley of St. Andres, crossing the road from 
Perote to Puebla, near the village of Poctarus to San 


Cristoval, ‘ ; . 1,300,000 

8th. 4 Four leagues from San Gistovat to the city 55 Mexico, 270,000 
Locomotives and cars, . ; : ; 2 : - 550,000 

Whole cost of the road, : ; : : . 5,810,000 


P. O. HEBERT, 
Lieut. Col. 14th Infantry.” 


CHA PEER VITT. 


MEXICAN FINANCES. 


DISORDER OF MEXICAN FINANCES — ENORMOUS USURY. — CHAR 
ACTER OF FINANCIAL OPERATIONS. — EXPENSES OF ADMINIS- 
TRATIONS.—ANALYSIS OF MEXICAN DEBT— COMPARISON OF 
INCOME AND OUTLAY — DEFICIT. 


Tue distracted political condition of Mexico since 1809, has 
contributed largely to the proverbial impoverishment and financial 
discredit of a country, which, nevertheless, has during the whole 
intervening period, been engaged in furnishing an important share 
of the world’s circulating medium. The revolutionary and factious 
state of parties ; the unrestrained ambition of leaders; the violence 
with which they displaced rivals; their short tenure of office when 
they attained power and the consequent impossibility of maturing 
any permanent scheme of finance; the ordinary reliance of states- 
men upon a large army, and the immense cost of its support; the 
continual and habitual recourse to loans at ruinous rates of usury ; 
the comparative ignorance of domestic resources and their failure 
of development in consequence either of intestine broils or the igno- 
rance and slothfulness of the population, together with the plunder 
of the treasury by unprincipled demagogues and despots, may all 
be regarded as the basis of Mexican misrule and pecuniary misfor- 
tune. For nearly forty years every minister of finance has been 
taxed to discover means for daily support. Let us illustrate the 
system commonly pursued. 

On the 20th of September, fifteen days before the treaty of Es- 
tansuela, the administration of president Bustamante offered the 
following terms for a loan of $1,200,000. It proposed to receive 
the sum of $200,000 in cash, and $1,000,000 represented in the 
paper or credits of the government. ‘These credits or paper were 
worth, in the market, nine per cent. About one-half of the loan 
was taken, and the parties obtained orders on the several maritime 
custom houses, receivable in payment of duties. 

The revenues of the custom house of Matamoros, had _ been al- 
ways appropriated to pay the army on the northern frontier of the 
republic, but during the administration of General Bustamante, the 
commandant of Matamoros issued bonds or drafts against that cus- 


108 CHARACTER OF FINANCIAL OPERATIONS. 


tom house for $150,000, receivable for all kinds of duties as cash. 
He disposed of these bonds to the merchants of that port for 
$100,000 — and, in addition to the bonus of $50,000, allowed 
them interest on the $100,000, at the rate of three per cent. per 
month, until they had duties to pay which they could extinguish by 
the drafts. 

Another transaction, a a singular nature, developes the character 
of the government’s negotiations, and can only be accounted for by 
the receipt of some advantages which the act itself does not dis- 
close to the public. 

The mint at Guanajuato, or the right to coin at that place, was 
contracted for, in 1842, by a most respectable foreign house in 
Mexico, for $71,000 cash, for the term of fourteen years, at the 
same time that another offer was before the government, stipulating 
for the payment of $400,000 for the same period, payable in annual 
instalments of $25,000 each. The $71,000 in hand, were, how- 
ever, deemed of more value than the prospective four hundred 
thousand. This mint yielded a net annual income of $60,000. 

These are a few examples presented in illustration of the spend- 
thrift abandonment of the real resources of the country; and the 
character of the transactions at once discloses the true origin and 
continuance of national discredit. The demand of the hour was 
irresistible, and if the minister or the president was unable to com- 
ply with it, his political fate was sealed, perhaps forever. The 
isolated good or evil measures adopted by financiers, have only 
tended to augment the confusion. Each government, of the thirty 
or more which have swayed Mexico since her independence, has 
been forced to contend not only with its own errors but with those 
of its predecessors; and hence the public has naturally lost faith 
and hope in politicians as soon as they assumed the helm of state. 
No matter what the personal character, or what the financial talents 
of ministers might be, the people believed them to be immediately 
compromised or paralized by circumstances and political necessity. 

We will present the reader a view of Mexican national expenses, 
according to ministerial estimates during a series of years between 
the establishment of the federal constitution in 1824 and the war 
with the United States. This statement, in regard to a country 
which has been stationary in population and industry, with an aug- 
menting outlay of money, is somewhat remarkable : 

1825 the national expenses were . $17,100,000 
| 1826 ee cg 16,666,463 
1827 to 1828 ny a: Bs - 13,363,098 


EXPENSES OF ADMINISTRATIONS. 109 


1828 to 1829 the national expenses were 15,604,000 
1830 to 1831 ee ce ee . 17,438,000 
1832 to 1833 «e ee a 22,292,000 


According to report of commissioners to Cham- 
ber of Deputies in 1846, _.. : : . 21,254,134 
Period of Santa Anna’s administration, : 25,222,304 


These dates, it will be observed comprehend epochs in which 
the country has been governed by the federal system as well as 
those in which extraordinary powers were conferred on national 
magistrates. In the preceding yearly amounts, it should be recol- 
lected, that a few of them comprise occasional sums paid on ac- 
count of the foreign and domestic debt; but, on an average, thir- 
teen millions of dollars may be considered as the annual outlay. 

In consequence of this costly government of so small a nation, a 
large foreign and domestic debt has been created, in addition to 
the liabilities of New Spain prior to independence, which are calcu- 
lated at nearly forty-two millions. 

In considering this interesting subject we have taken pains to 
obtain the best authorities from Mexico, and, from the reports of 
the ministers of finance, we reach the following results in regard to 
that republic’s financiai condition in the year 1850. Her foreign 
debt amounts to $58,889,487 ; her home-debt to $48,934,610; and 
her debt, prior to independence, to $41,983,096, making a total 
of pecuniary liabilities, with interest, to the Ist of July, 1849, of 
one hundred and forty-nine millions, eight hundred and seven thou- 
sand, one hundred and ninety-three dollars ; — the annual interest 
on which, alone, amounts to nearly nine millions of dollars. 

Inasmuch as the clear income of Mexico in 1849, was not calcu- 
lated at more than five millions five hundred and forty thousand 
one hundred and twelve dollars, while the expenses were rated at 
thirteen millions seven. hundred and sixty-five thousand four hun- 
dred and thirty-five dollars, there would necessarily be an annual 
deficit, in the mere current finances, of eight millions two hun- 
dred and twenty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-three 
dollars. This sum, added to the actual interest on the national 
debt, shows the total yearly deficit in Mexico, of seventeen millions 
two hundred and thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-four 
dollars ; —a sum larger than the present yield of all the mints in 
the republic. 

This frightful picture of national finances is now absorbing the 
attention of the Mexican people and congress; and it is to be hoped 
that some wise plan may be devised to extricate the nation from 


110 ANALYSIS OF MEXICAN DEBT. 


ruin and that the government may be sufficiently strong and en- 
during to carry it into effect. 


Awnatysis oF NationaL Dest anp Resources, 1850, 
Ist. THe Forrren Dest. 


The foreign debt of Mexico, or the liability of the 

national treasury to citizens or subjects of other 

countries, according to the statement made and ap- 

proved by the meeting of bondholders in London on 

the 24th of June, 1846, was £10,241,650, or, in 

Mexican currency, at $5 the £, to : : $51,208,250 
This capital, according to agreement with the bond- 

holders, bears an annual interest of 5 per cent. 

from the Ist of July, 1846, which amounts yearly 

to $2,560,412, and, up to the 1st sea 1849, — to 

the sum of ; : : ; 7,681,237 


Total foreign debt to Ist July, 1849, g : $58,889,487 
2d. Home Dest. 


The debt, the liquidation of which is founded upon an 
assignment of 26 per cent. of the income from mer- 


cantile duties, amounts to : : . $15,030,466 
Interest on this sum to Ist July, 1849, : 2,745,947 
Debt created for the redemption of the old copper cur- 

rency of Mexico, . ; ; : : 2,083,205 
Interest due to 1st Hay 1849, : : : 574,992 
Due for indemnities, credits snd contracts, . : 3,500,000 


Due to civil and atti employées and pensioners, . 25,000,000 
Total home debt, Ist July, 1849, j . - $48,934,610 


3d. Dest BEFORE NaTIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 


National debt anterior to independence, interest to 
1st July, 1849, : $41,983,096 


SUMMARY. 
1. Foreign debt, . : : : : : $58,889,487 
2. Home debt, . : : 48,934,610 
3. Debt prior to inleaeadence, i : . 41,983,096 
Total debt of Mexico, . ‘ , t - $149,807,193 


The annual interest on which, at 6 per cent. is $8,988,431 


COMPARISON OF INCOME AND OUTLAY — DEFICIT. 111 


Estimate of the Income of Mexico from the 1st July, 1848, to 1st 
July, 1849, according to the calculation of the Mexican minister 
of Finance. 


Income from Maritime Duties, : A . $4,488,000 
<¢ from _IntERNAL Duties, Taxes, &c., &c., 2,224,000 
Total, : : ; . $6,712,000 


Deduct from this the cost of collecting his revenue 
1,171,888 
and for various prior partial assignments of it, 


Total income for the year, : $5,540,112 


EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT FROM Ist Juty, 1848 ro 
Ist Juty, 1849. 


Expenses of Legislative department, . : : $720,300 
‘> Department of Bergen and Domestic re- 

lations, : : ; Bee 

Ke Department of Snsuce : 135,550 

6¢ cc of Finance, : . 5,411,984 

Ts 3 cc of War, j . . 7,769,342 

6c <¢ . Supreme Court of qusuce: 330,230 

Total, , $15,265,435 


Deduct from this the sums that may be ened by 
economical administration of the departments and 
by the improved condition or reduction of the 


army, Say, ‘ : : 3 : ‘ 1,500,000 
Total expenses of government, . : : $13,765,435 
SUMMARY. 

Total of National Expenses, : : : . $13,765,435 

e oe Income, : : : : 5,540,112 

Bers, (OO While GRLCar ol bdo. $8 205998 
Deficit on yearly expenses, ; ; $8,225,323 
Interest on debt, . : : : 8,988,431 


Total yearly deficit, . : : $17,213,7 54 


CHAPTER IX. 


MANUFACTURES. 


TABLE OF COTTON FACTORIES IN MEXICO — CONSUMPTION — PRO- 
DUCTION. — INCREASE OF FACTORIES — DAY AND NIGHT WORK. 
— DEFICIT OF MATERIAL —WATER AND STEAM POWER — MEXI- 
CAN MANUFACTURES GENERALLY. 


TABULAR STATEMENT OF THE CoTTon Factories in Mexico, THEIR CoNSUMPTION 


AND PropucTion 1n 1844, 


eal tp s>|ss |83 g 

o] 8 5 fe || Sale : 

ra ° 2 é O19) o|: cep eat Pee 2 

2 iS g & S - ee a a im 

States. 3 es . Total. 5 ete oe % 

eg ae 2 ca de Bo | ee ee cree 

e) BS 12 ore 2 | Bese eee 

6! a3 a 6 ‘Be | 290/08 s o 

aah n FS ie one lee 5 
Durango...| 5 5,560 816} 6,376 140 139. 400 778) $1,795 
Guanajuato] 1 500; 800 800|...... 10 Q00hcicetar 150 
Jalisco..... 4 8,904| 5,664) 14,568 220 228) 16,800)...... 2,450 
Mexico....|17| 23,894 200| 24,094) 1,187 401| 36,000) 3,277) 8,413 
'Puebla...../21| 37,396| 5,842) 42,874 530 691) 61.710; 1,290; 6,154 
Queretaro. .| 2 5,400) 4,200} 9,600 112 137; 10,000 400} 2,400 


Sonora ....| 1 Py LOS||.0 eapeiels 2,198 D4 "UN ev orepetonse 57 385 
Vera Cruz .| 8} 22,856) 1,992) 24,848 366 361) 35,835 733) 5,510 


end 


59| 106,708! 18,654) 125,362} 2,609; 2,0381161,654| 6,535) $27,257 


Very few returns are wanting to make this table perfect in every respect. 


From this summary it appears that the total number of spindles 
in operation and in course of erection in the republic in the year 
1844, — anterior to the war and during a period of comparative 
progress, — amounted to 125,362, together with 2609 looms in the 
fifty-nine factories of cotton stuffs and twist. These factories con- 
sumed, weekly, 2038 quintals of cotton, and gave, according to the 
table, a weekly product of 161,654 lbs. of cotton twist, a portion of 
which they converted into 6535 pieces of cotton cloth, the remain- 
der being sold for the consumption of private and scattered hand 
looms throughout the country. An intelligent and experienced 
manufacturer, acquainted with Mexican factories, and at present re- 
siding in this country, calculates with apparent justice, that 2038 


4 ae 
are 
toe ie 


INCREASE OF FACTORIES — DAY AND NIGHT WORK. 1153 


quintals of cotton, allowing fairly for waste, will yield, 183,420 lbs. 
of twist and filling, and that the weekly product of cotton cloth will 
be 8479 pieces of 32 varas each, from 2609 looms, each loom ave- 
raging about three and one quarter pieces per week. But allowing 
this correction of the above table of the Junta de Fomento, and ad- 
hering to its data in other respects in which it appears to be entirely 
faithful, we attain some important results. By comparing the number 
of spindles actually in Mexico at that epoch, with the number known 
to be there in 1842, viz: 131,280, and adding to the number now 
stated 8050 which are in the various factories closed in the interval 
but whose machinery is still in existence, we show an increase of 
2132 according to the most accurate accessible information. Since 
the war the number has been no doubt largely augmented if we 


- may judge by the numerous shipments of machinery to Mexico 


from Europe and North America. 


In order to show the importance to Mexico of allowing the libe- 
ral importation of cotton from the United States, inasmuch as it is 
not likely she will become a cotton growing country in proportion to 
the increase of her manufacturing population, we have prepared the 
following comparative estimates. In our chapters on the agriculture 
of the republic we have endeavored, and we hope successfully, to 
demonstrate the impracticability of inducing the Indians to produce 
sufficient for present purposes, or to devote themselves to the labor 
of extensive cotton plantations for the benefit of the future. 


Working by day alone the Mexican factories consume yearly 
105,976 quintals, or 10,597,600 Ibs. of raw cotton, whilst the whole 
cotton crop of the republic according to recent estimates, is not 
more than 60,000, or, 70,000 quintals, equal to 7,000,000 lbs.; but 
if they worked by day and night, they would use 18,545,800 lbs. of 
the raw material, allowing three-fourths of the day consumption for 
night work. From these calculations we derive the following im- 
tant results, as to deficiency: 


Ist. 
Working by day only, the rary a of 
cotton is : 10,597,600 lhs. 
Deduct the whole tee crop ae 70, 000 quin- 
tals, at 100 lbs. per quintal, . ; - 7,000,000 Ǥ 
Deficit, : : : 3,597,600 «€ 


114 DEFICIT OF MATERIAL— WATER AND STEAM POWER. 


2d. 


Working by day—yearly consumption, as above, 10,597,600 Ibs. 
Add three-fourths for night work, : . - 7,948,200 * 


Total consumption, gi 18,545,800 < 
Deduct Mexican crop as above, ; : . 7,000,000 <« 
Deficit, ; : ..,,) dd b4a S00 cs 


Cotton varies, as we have seen in price according to demand, at 
Tepic, Mazatlan, Vera Cruz, Tampico, Puebla, Durango, the val- 
ley of Mexico, &c., from fifteen dollars, per quintal, to forty-eight. 
If we rate it, on an average, at twenty-five dollars per quintal, the 
value of the deficit on day consumption will be $899,400, and on 
day and night consumption, $2,886,450, all of which must neces- 
sarily, be made up by importation. 

We have prepared the preceding table in order to attract the at- 
tention of cotton producing countries, and to demonstrate the fact 
that Mexico, in all likelihood, may become a manufacturing nation, 
inasmuch as the surplus population of towns, the women and chil- 
dren, may be successfully employed in this branch of human in- 
dustry, when they have no agricultural district from which they 
may easily derive support with the least labor. There is reason to 
believe that water power, for the use of factories is abundant all over 
the republic. The natural drainage of a mountain country will at 
once prove this fact. Innumerable small streams, falling from the 
crests and sides of the sterras, pour through the ravines and barran- 
cas; but in consequence of the scarcity of wood and the costliness 
of its transportation, it is not probable that steam power can be ad- 
vantageously used. Factories of paper near the capital, at Puebla 
and in Guadalajara are working with success, but they do not pro- 
duce enough for the consumption of the republic. At Puebla and 
Mexico there are several factories of the ordinary kinds of glass and 
tumblers, whilst woollen blankets, baizes, and, at present, fine 
cloths, are yielded by several establishments erected before and 


1 The cultivation of cotton is a branch of agriculture of almost marvellous in- 
crease. Mr. Burke, a member of our congress, from South Carolina, in 1789, when 
speaking of southern agriculture, remarked that “cotton was likewise in contempla- 
tion.” During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when 7012 bags of the 
- article were imported into Liverpool a perfect panic was produced by so unusual 
a supply, at present 150,000 bags may reach a single port without greatly affect- 
ing the price. In 1791 the whole United States produced only two millions of 
pounds, whilst in 1848, the Commissioner of Patents calculated the whole crop at 
1,066,000,000 Ibs. 


MEXICAN MANUFACTURES GENERALLY. 115 


since the war. ‘The well known Mexican serape, or poncho, —an 
oblong garment, pierced in the centre to allow the passage of the 
head, and which falls in graceful folds from the shoulders of a horse- 
man over his person—is one of the most generally demanded 
fabrics from native looms. ‘These blankets are often of beautiful 
texture, composed of the richest materials and colors, and, accord- 
ing to the fineness of their wool and weaving, vary in cost from 
twenty-five to five hundred doliars. The serape is an indispensable 
article, both for use and luxury, for the lepero as well as the cabal- 
lero, and being as much needed by men as the reboso, or long cot- 
ton shawl, is by the women, it may readily be conceived how great 
is the consumption of these two articles of domestic manufacture 
alone. There are between five and six thousand hand looms 
throughout the several states, and these are continually engaged in 
the fabrication of rebosos and serapes, the latter of which are most 
exquisitely dyed and woven in tasteful patterns in the neighborhood 
of Saltillo. ' 


1 Whilst these pages are passing through the press information has been received 
from the Mexican gazettes that in 1846 there were sixty-two cotton factories for 
spinning and weaving, and five for manufacturing woollens ;— that the first men- 
tioned have been greatly improved by the introduction of the best kinds of ma- 
chinery, and that two new factorics for woollens have been set in operation in the 
state of Mexico, which produce cloths and cassimeres that are eagerly purchased by 
the best classes. The cost of these fabrics is not mentioned, but it is probably fifty 
per cent. higher than if manufactured in the United States. 


y 
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PAS PTY, i 


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INDIAN HUT IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE ARMY AND NAVY OF MEXICO. 


THE MILITARY IN MEXICO BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION — . 


CONFIRMATION OF ARMY-——ITS POLITICAL USE.— CHARACTER OF 
MEXICAN SOLDIERS — RECRUITING — TACTICS — OFFICERS. — DRA- 
MATIC CHARACTER OF ARMY-—— RECRIMINATIONS.—CONDITION OF 
THE ARMY AT THE PEACE.— ARMY ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER — 
MILITARY COLONIES.— CHARACTER OF THE TRIBES. — FORTRESSES 
— PEROTE — ACAPULCO —SAN JUAN DE ULUA.— REORGANIZATION 
OF THE ARMY—— TABULAR VIEW OF MEN AND MATERIEL. — NAVY— 
EXTENT OF COAST ON BOTH SEAS.— NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT — VES- 
SELS AND OFFICERS. — EXPENSES OF WAR AND NAVY. 


We have already alluded, in the historical portion of this work to 
some of the fostering sources of the Mexican army and to the evil 
results its importance has produced in the country. The colonial 
forces designed for the maintenance of order and due subjection in 
New Spain, were chiefly sent from the old world until the wars in 
Europe required the mother country to hoard its military resources. 
These foreign stipendiaries for a long time sufhced to secure the 
loyalty of the emigrants ; but as the country grew in importance and 
numbers, and as the Indians revolted against their task-masters, it 
became necessary from time to time to call out reinforcements from 
the colonists ; and when foreign invasion was dreaded, these levies, 
as we have seen, were largely augmented from all parts of the 
viceroyalty. : 

The idea of military service was, accordingly, not altogether un- 
familiar to the Mexican mind when the first insurrectionary move- 
ments occurred under the lead of Hidalgo; but when the violent 
outbreak threatened to degenerate into a war of castes, and to array 
the Indians against all in whose veins circulated Castilian blood, it 
became the duty of the settlers to cultivate that spirit and discipline 
which would, at least, preserve them from utter destruction. The 
succeeding war of independence converted the whole country for 
eleven years into a camp, and when the strife terminated in success, 
it was found that a people, whose natural temperament addicted 
them to military spectacles, had become habituated and enured to a 
military career. 

When the war was over and the power of Spain effectually 
broken, the contest was transferred from a foreign enemy to domes- 


Se 


CONFIRMATION OF ARMY —ITS POLITICAL USE. Le 


tic foes. Men who had been accustomed for so long a period to 
military rule did not immediately acquire the habit of self-govern- 
ment. National police required a national army. Officers who had 
distinguished themselves in an epoch when laws were silent and the 
only authorities recognized wore the insignia of military life, did not 
forsake willingly the power they enjoyed. Indeed, they were the 
only authentic personages capable of enforcing obedience; and their 
adherents were soon armed against each other in all the contentions 
for political position which vexed the republic during the dawn 
of its national existence. Civil wars became habitual. An army 
was an element of strength and success which no military chieftain 
thought proper tocrush. Rallying his disciplined partizans, as long 
as his friends or his fortune supplied their support, he was ready 
at a moment to take the field either for the maintenance of a leader’s 
cause or to secure his own elevation. Nor was this mode of life 
disagreeable to the body of the army and inferior officers who were 
lodged and fed at the public expense during a period when it was 
difficult to find easy or agreeable civil employments in the distracted 
realm. Each petty subaltern and even every common soldier, clad 
in the livery of the state and carrying arms, was regarded by the 
unshod Jeperos and homeless vagrants as a personage of superior 
position; and thus, whilst the army became at that epoch popular 
with the people it had liberated from Spanish bondage, it ripened 
into a necessity of the aspiring politicians who craved a speedier 
access to power than by the slow and toilsome process of a repub- 
lican canvass. ‘The state, itself, perceiving these manifold causes 
of military favor, utility, and supposed need, preserved the army 
from all assaults by patriotic congressmen, and thus the greatest 
curse and burthen of the nation, —the origin and means of all its 
woes and all its despots, — was, from the first, riveted to the body 
politic of Mexico. 

It must not be supposed, however, that in speaking of the Mexi- 
can army we design to compare it, either in detail or as an or- | 
ganized body, with the troops of this country or of Europe. 
Neither in the mass of its materiel, nor in its officers, does it vie 
with the trained and disciplined forces of other civilized countries. 
Soldiers in Mexico are rather actors in a political drama, — dressed 
and decorated for imposing display, — than efficient warriors whose 
instruction and power make them irresistible in the field. In all 
the engagements, or attempts to engage, which occurred in Mexico 
since the termination of the war of independence, there has been a 
laudable desire, at least among the troops, to avoid the shedding of 


118 CHARACTER OF MEXICAN SOLDIERS. 


blood. Cities have been besieged and bombarded; magnificent 
arrays of forces have been made on adjacent fields; large camps 
have been formed and held in readiness; cannons, loaded with 
cannister and grape, have been discharged along the crowded high- 
ways of towns; marksmen have been placed in towers, steeples, 
and azoteas, to pick off unwary passengers; divisions have been 
reviewed and manceuvred in sight of each other, but, in all these 
revolts or pronunciamientos, no pitched battles were fought which 
actually terminated the contest by the gun and sword. The aspi- 
rant chief, or the hero he designed to displace, managed to secure 
the majority of the neighboring military forces, and as soon as the 
fact was unequivocally ascertained, the one who was in the mi- 
nority fled from the scene without provoking a trial by battle. In 
1840, 1841, and 1844, during the administrations of Bustamante 
and Santa Anna, there were various exhibitions of these sham con- 
tests ; but, in all of them, we have reason to believe that the inno- 
cent non-combatant people were the greatest sufferers, and that the 
army escaped comparatively unscathed. 

These observations are not designed to impugn the military 
nerve or spirit of the Mexicans, for the war with the United States 
and the war of their revolution, demonstrated that they unite 
both in quite an eminent degree. Our officers believe that the 
Mexican possesses the elements of a good soldier, but that he is 
neither trained, disciplined, nor led, so as to make him a dangerous 
foe. This is demonstrated by the result of the recent war and of 
every action fought during it. A brave show and a bold assault 


were not stubbornly followed up with pertinacious resolution, in 


spite of all resistance. ‘The Mexicans were fighting on their own 
soul, for their own country, against a hated foe, yet they failed in 
every conflict, and with every conceivable disparity of numbers. 
The great body of the army is of course composed either of In- 
dians or mixed breeds, and the idea of nationality in its high love 
of a loveable country, does not in all probability, animate or inspire 
these classes in the hour of danger. They did not fight with a 
common or an understood purpose. They were rather forced mer- 
cenaries than patriots. It was not a war of enthusiasm. Every 
effort was made by grandiloquent proclamations and false allega- 
tions to rally and nerve them; but whenever they crossed arms with 
our forces, if they failed in the onset, like lions foiled in their 
spring, they retreated to their lair. Nevertheless, throughout the 
contest, there were repeated instances of courage, constancy, endu- 
rance, and persistence which satisfied our officers that under a differ- 


RECRUITING — TACTICS — OFFICERS. 119 


ent system of education and command, the Mexicans would make 
excellent soldiers. Their horsemen, probably the best riders on the 
continent, paid more attention to the management of their animals 
than to the use of their horse’s force in the charge ; while their in- 
fantry and artillery avoided those close quarters which make the 
bayonet so powerful a weapon when directed by intrepid, unquail- 
ing arms in the presence and under the lead of unflinching com- 
pnay officers. ‘Their lancers did more damage to dismounted vic- 
tims than to erect and fighting foes. 

With the majority of the rank and file, the army is, in all likeli- 
hood, not a profession of choice. Enlistment is now scarcely ever 
voluntary. When men are required for a new regiment or to fill 
companies thinned by death or desertion, a sergeant is despatched 
with his guard to recruit among the Indians and peons of the neigh- 
borhood. The subaltern probably finds these individuals laboring 
in the fields, and without even the formality of a request, selects the 
best men from the group and orders them into the ranks. If they 
resist or attempt to escape, they are immediately lazo’d, and, at 
nightfall the gang is marched, bound in pairs, to the nearest bar- 
rack, where the wretched victims of military oppression are pursued 
by a mournful procession of wives and children who henceforth 
follow their husbands or parents during the whole period of service. 
From the hands of the recruiting sergeant the conscript passes into 
those of the drill sergeant. The chief duty of this personage is to 
teach him to march, countermarch, and to handle an unserviceable 
weapon. From the drill sergeant he succeeds to the company ofh- 
cer, and here, perhaps, he encounters the worst foe of his ultimate 
efficiency. 

Officers in Mexico have no thorough military and scientific edu- 
cation. There is a military school at Chapultepec, near the capi- 
tal, but it has never been carefully and completely organized, nor 
has it furnished many men who have distinguished themselves in 
the field. The politicians, relying on the dramatic power of the 
army, made that army the means of reward and influence in civil 
life, by selecting its officers of all grades from every employment or 
occupation. Merchants, tradespeople, professional men, children 
of wealthy or ambitious families, all attained rank in the army by 
this unwise means, and the consequence has been that the majority 
of company, and perhaps even of field officers, was rather fitted to 
display the magnificent uniforms to which their grades entitle 
them than to discipline the rank and file when organized in battal- 
lons, regiments and divisions. 


120 DRAMATIC CHARACTER OF ARMY—RECRIMINATIONS. 


The picturesque and scenic efficiency of such an army will be 
easily admitted, and the causes of its failure in the late war will be 
quite as easily understood. What can be more deplorable in bat- 
tle, even for the victors, than to behold an undisciplined man badly 
led or driven into conflict? What can be more disastrous for an 
officer than to stand in the midst of blood and carnage, without 
knowing what to do in the moment of trial when knowledge and 
presence of mind are imperatively needed? Can it be surprising, 
therefore, to observe that the columns of Mexican gazettes and 
pages of Mexican pamphlets published during the war, are filled 
with the basest crimination and recrimination or the lamest attempts 
at exculpation from disgraceful defeat ? 

A writer in the Monitor Republicano, speaking of the Mexican 
army, says, you have nothing to do but to read the writings of its 
generals from the commencement of the campaign, through the dif- 
ferent actions and skirmishes in chronological order, and it will be 
seen that they have mutually called one another traitors, cowards, 
and imbeciles. He gives the following list of recriminations : — 
“‘ Arista accused Torrejon, Ampudia and others; Torrejon Ampu- 
dia, while Uraga charged Arista; Jarregui accused Carrasco and 
various chiefs; Carrasco accused Jarregui and other generals ; 
Mejia brought charges against Ampudia;. Ampudia against him and 
several leaders, as Carrasco, Enciso and others, principal officers of 
the army. Urrea and others charged Parrodi with cowardice and 
treason; Parrodi accused Urrea and Romero, and Romero accused 
the famous Miramon of Mazatlan, the speculator in the goods taken 
by the troops of Urrea from those of Gen. Taylor. 

Requena accused Santa Anna; Santa Anna in his turn, Re- 
quena; Torrejon and Juvera recriminate Requena; Requena, in his 
turn, Torrejon, Juvera and Portilla. Santa Anna accused Mijn; 
Mijion accused Santa Anna and his confederates. Santa Anna 
brought charges against Valencia, in Ciudad Victoria; Valencia in 
his turn, accused Santa Anna. Viscayno accused Heredia and 
Garcia Conde; these in turn, Viscayno. Santa Anna recriminates 
against Canalizo, Uraga and others at Cerro Gordo; Canalizo, 
Uraga, Gaona and others against Santa Anna. Santa Anna again 
accuses Valencia in Padierna ; Valencia accuses Santa Anna, Salas 
and others, and Salas accuses Valencia, Torrejon and others. Santa 
Anna, in the first actions in the valley, accuses everybody; he ac- 
cuses Rincon, Anaya, and the National Guard at Churubusco; in 
the other actions of September, Terrés, Bravo and others. Bravo, 
Terrés and others in turn, recriminate Santa Anna, Perdigon and 


CONDITION OF THE ARMY AT THE PEACE. 121 


Simeon Ramirez. Perdigon accuses Simeon Ramirez and Terrés 
nimself. Alvarez accuses Don Manuel Andrade, and Andrade in 
turn accuses him. Alcorta accuses the Andrade of the hussars, 
while he accuses Alcorta;— and in fine, we have before us the 
letters and despatches of the whole of them — we have before us 
their actions and skirmishes, from the battle of San Jacinto up to 
the ignominious capture of Gaona and Torrejon by the Poblano rob- 
ber, Dominguez.” 

We have quoted these passages, to prove, by Mexican authority, 
that our remarks upon the army are not made in a captious spirit 
or with a desire to undervalue its officers ungenerously. 

Bad as had been the organization and conduct of the army, they 
were not, of course, improved by the results of the war. The 
morale and the materiel were both destroyed, so that when our 
troops withdrew during the summer of 1848, little more than a 
skeleton of the regiments remained to preserve order. This was, 
indeed, one of the greatest sources of dread to orderly Mexicans, 
for they feared that when all foreign restraint was suddenly re- 
moved, the country would be given up to anarchy. Without men 
and without means, the government justly apprehended the uprising 
of the mob, nor were there demagogues wanting to excite the evil 
passions of the masses by an outcry against the treaty. At the 
head of this disgraceful movement was General Paredes, who had 
returned from exile, but had not been trusted by the government 
during the conflict. ‘The payment of the first instalment of the sum 
agreed upon in the treaty, however, enabled the authorities to main- 
tain tranquillity, and as soon as comparative order was enforced by 
a new administration, the army was reorganized under a law 
passed on the 4th of November, 1848. By this act, the military 
establishment was greatly reduced, even on paper, and, in 1849, 
not more than five thousand two hundred, rank and file, were in 
actual service. 

If there were, in reality, no need of an army in Mexico to oppose 
a foreign enemy, or, to preserve domestic peace, one would still be 
required to secure the Northern Frontier against the incursions of 
Indians. From the earliest periods, the Spaniards were vexed by 
their savage assaults, and, since the establishment of independence, 
the Mexicans have every year seen their people and property car- 
ried: off by the robber tribes, whilst their villages, ranchos and 
haciendas were totally destroyed or partially ravaged. 

Mexican engineers have calculated that the new boundary line, 
following the course of the Rio Grande and the Gila and including 

P 


122 ARMY ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER—MILIYARY COLONIES. 


a mathematical line of seventy leagues between these streams, is 
six hundred and forty-six leagues or about nineteen hundred miles 
in length. Three-fourths of this line pass through an uninhabited 
region, and, consequently, the savages have free access across it to 
the few and small settlements on the bortler. Such an extent of 
frontier, though considerably reduced from the former line’ anterior 
to the treaty, became at once an object of concern to the govern- 
ment, especially as the people of the United States immediately 
opened communications through the Indian country with the 
Pacific, and would probably soon control the important passes 
through the whole region north of the boundary. Accordingly on 
the 20th of July, 1848, it was decreed that eighteen Mrzirary 
Coxonies should be created, and placed within easy communica- 
tion, so as to protect the southern settlers in some degree, or to 
encounter and punish the savages in their forays. The greater 
portions of the most warlike tribes were transferred by the treaty to 
the United States, and, by one of its articles, we bound ourselves 
to aid, at least, in saving the Mexicans from their plunder if we 
could not totally destroy their inimical power. In the neighbor- 
hood of the boundary, from near the mouth of the Gila to the com- 
mencement of the mathematical line, before alluded to, we find the 
tribes known as Coyotes, Mimbrefios and Gilefios, the former of 
whom wage war against Sonora, whilst the latter attack Chihua- 
hua. The Apaches and Cumanches spread their numerous hordes 
from the vicinity of Chihuahua to the sources of the Nueces, 


twenty-five leagues beyond the Rio Grande. Besides these, there 


are, throughout this district many savage bands, supporting them- 
selves entirely by the chase, and it is probable, according to 
the opinion of soldiers and captives, who have been among the 
tribes, that all these clans can unite thirty thousand warriors, whilst 
they still leave a sufficient number to protect their wigwams and 
villages. 

Fortunately for the white races, these barbarians are not able to 
maintain peace among themselves. The Apaches and Cumanches 
are in continual strife, and never return from the “war path” with- 
out serious losses. It is not to be feared, therefore, that they will 
voluntarily join in a general rising against our pioneers; yet a 
common danger, or a common attack, might soon cement their 
hatred against the supposed usurper, and, directed by a man of 
capacity, produce even a more disastrous war than that with the 
Seminoles of Florida. 

The Cumanches are numerous and active. They are divided 


we 


CHARACTER OF THE TRIBES — FORTRESSES. 123 


into Caihuas, Yamparicas, and Llaneros. The Apaches are 
braver than the Cumanches, and are known as Meselaros and 
Lipanes. These barbarians arm themselves with guns, rifles, lances, 
bows and arrows. They manage their weapons admirably, are 
agile horsemen, and shoot with unerring aim. ‘Tall and majestic 
in figure; muscular and capable of enduring fatigue; accustomed 


_ to live on the simplest food of the forest and to win it when neces- 


sary by the arrow alone; uniting the sagacity of men with the in- 
stinct of animals, these knights of the southern wilderness realize 
perfectly our ideas of the daring aborigines who peopled this 
continent before it was subdued by the white man. Their hatred 
of the Mexicans and the savage fury with which they pursue their 
male captives of adult age, appear to denote even a stronger, if not 
a worthier motive than robbery in their attacks. At least six hun- 
dred women and children are borne off by them every year from the 
settlements to their mountain fastnesses, and they openly confess 
that they are not unwilling to improve their race by mingling it 
with the white. 

In order to maintain the southern frontier intact from these sav- 
ages, Mexico designs the establishment of these military colonies, 
and will, in all probability, support them by a second or rear line 
of troops from the regular army as well as by forts and strongholds 
erected in positions affording easy access from the wilderness to 
inhabited regions. A frontier so open, and thronged with such 
barbarous hordes, could not be protected by military colonies alone. 


The principal Fortrresses and strongholds of Mexico have 
hitherto been those of Perote, Acapulco, Ulua, and the citadels at 
Mexico and Monterey. ‘The present government has ordered the 
citadel of Mexico, situated a short distance out of the town to be 
abandoned, as it only formed a nucleus for the assemblage of the 
military factionists who have constantly disturbed the peace of the 
republic. The citadel of Monterey is to be maintained and suita- 
bly supported. 

The castle at Acapulco, an extremely important point on the 
southern or Pacific coast, is greatly impaired, and will require at 
least a hundred thousand dollars to adapt it for defence. The 
fortress of Perote was designed originally by the Spanish govern- 
ment as a depot for the treasure intended for shipment from Vera 
Cruz, in which the gold and silver would be safer than at an ex- 
posed sea port during that dangerous period of Castilian history, 
when all the nations of Europe were anxious to plunder her colo- 


124 PEROTE — ACAPULCO — SAN JUAN DE ULUA. 


nies. Situated far in the interior of the country and in the midst 
of a wide plain, it does not absolutely command any of the ap- 
proaches either from the coast to the inner states, or to the coast 
from the capital. It is, however, well placed as a military arsenal, 
and demands an expenditure of about thirty thousand dollars to 
render it useful to the nation. 

The Castle of San Juan de Ulua, built on a reef opposite the town 
of Vera Cruz, is in so ruinous a state that scarcely a million and a 
half of dollars will suffice to restore it to its ancient splendor and 
power. The one hundred and twenty-four guns now within its walls 
are all more or less injured or dismounted. ‘To garrison this Cas- 
tle properly,”’ said General Arista in his report as Minister of War 
in 1849, ‘two thousand men will be required at a yearly cost of 
four hundred thousand dollars. If this immense treasure is squan- 
dered on the Castle, it will surely be wasted alone to preserve a 
vain luxury; for, as Mexico has no hope of becoming a maritime 
power, San Juan de Ulua must always fall into the possession of 
such a naval nation whenever it makes war upon us. Experienced 
Spanish officers have recommended the dismantling of San Juan, 
and they now urge it more strongly than ever, as there is far 
greater reason to believe that it neither defends the nation nor 
even the city of Vera Cruz. The French, and recently the Ameri- 
cans, have convinced us of this fact; the first possessed themselves 
early of the Castle, and the latter took the town without hindrance 
from the Castle.” Such is the opinion of one of the most experi- 
enced Mexican generals in regara to a fortress which has hitherto 
been deemed impregnable, and, although we do not agree with him 
in regard to its entire worthlessness in the hands of abler engineers, 
we doubt whether its use is not greater in checking the city of Vera 
Cruz itself, than in commandirfg the approaches to it from the 
sea. It must be remembered that the lee of this very Castle is the 
only comparatively safe harbor on the gulf at present, and that 
until a mole or breakwater shall be erected elsewhere, it is only in 
certain seasons and under favorable circumstances that large bodies 
of troops may be prudently disembarked on the adjacent shores. 
The landing of General Scott, in 1847, was singularly fortunate in 
time and circumstances, for, soon after, a furious norther arose and 
prevented all communication between the land and the squadron. 
These violent gales are sudden and terrific in their rise and action 
at Vera Cruz, and the dreadful havoc they made among the Ameri- 
can shipping on the coast during the war, attests the value of a 
military defence whose protective duties are seconded by the very 


RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY. 125 


spirit of the storm. The introduction of steam power into the 
national marine must of course greatly modify the character of 
coast defences ; but we would deem it not only unwise but imbecile 
to abandon altogether a work which at least makes, if it does not 
perfectly protect, an important harbor. The city of Vera Cruz, 
itself, is a regular fortification, and with some important improve- 
ments and repairs, may not ultimately require San Juan de Ulua to 
defend it from assault. These two strongholds, combined, under the 
command of skilful generals and garrisoned with efficient soldiers, 
would offer a churlish welcome to any modern power either mari- 
time or military. Their seizure, during the winter months of 
tempest, would be almost impossible, and their occupation, during 
the summer would be as fatal, as was unfortunately proved by our 
troops in the June, July, and August, after the brilliant siege and 
inglorious surrender. 

The following tabular sketch prepared from Ministerial reports, 
exhibits the condition of the Mexican forces at this epoch. 


TABULAR VIEW OF THE RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE MExican ARMY 


In 1849. 
STAFF OF THE ARMY. 
12 Generals of divisions. 13 Captains. 
34 Brigadier generals. 8 Lieutenants and 2d adjudants. 
4 Colcnels. 3 Ensigns. 
5 Lieutenent Colonels. —~ 
1 Commandant of battalion. 80 Total. 
ENGINEER CORPS. MEDICAL STAFF, ACCORDING TO LAW. 
1 Brigadier general. 1 Inspector. 
2 Colonels. 1 Director of hospital. 
4 Lieutenant colonels. 8 Hospital professors. 
8 Captains. 40 Surgeons. 
— | 40 1st assistant surgeons. 
15 Total. 40 2d i es 


30 Apprentices. 
18 Surgeons for military colonies. 
2 Ambulance companies. 


MATERIEL OF THE ARMY. 
In actual service. 


1 Battalion of sappers, . 399 individuals required by law, . 220 


8 Battalions of infantry, 6000 st “i ne :' 8526 
12 Squadrons of cavalry, . 1800 io :: ah -) Hout 
2 Battalions of artillery, 1800 x“ ee i - 504 


ieee) 


Required by law, 9999 Only in service, 5211 


126 TABULAR VIEW OF MEN AND MATERIEL. 


THE ARMY AS REQUIRED BY LAW OF 4TH NOVEMBER, 1848. 


17 Colonels. 
16 Lieutenant colonels. 
11 Commanders of squadrons, battalions and chiefs of division. 
92 Captains. 
108 2d adjudants, and lieutenants. 
176 Sub-adjudants, sub-lieutenants and ensigns. 
17 Chaplains. 
133 1st serjeants; tambour majors; armorers ; oma! 
084 2d serjeants. 
1124 Corporals. 
356 Musicians. 
7954 Privates. 
32 Wagon masters. 
196 Drivers. 
54 Arrieros. 


1800 Cavalry horses. 
214 Artillery horses. 
687 Mules for purposes of traction. 
422 Pack mules. 


TABLE OF MILITIA REQUIRED IN ACTUAL SERVICE BY A DECREE OF 
Ist DecemBeER, 1847. 


For 6 active companies in Alvarado, Tehu- 
antepec, Tuspan, Acayucan, Acapulco. 


For the battalion of Tampico. No. on the list. Of these there are in 
actual service. 


1 Lieutenant colonel, 


1 Ist adjudant— a ae : side esche cua : ; 1 
1 Chaplain, : : 7 eee : : ee 
4 Captains, . : : : : 6 7 
5 Lieutenants, , : : 6 7 
9 Sub-lieutenants, ; ; ; 12 5 
5 Ist serjeants, ; : mas. 6 : : Bee 
16 2d is ; 5 ase: hae? ; : 14 
12 Musicians, . : : : 18 : 17 
53 Corporals, . - : : RM ok Ja : 16 


400 Privates, : ‘ ; : . 600 : ‘ . 181 
486 Total, : : 3 j «UV Op Ue . ~ 233 


ill 


NAVY — EXTENT OF COAST ON BOTH SEAS. 127 


GARRISONS IN THE REPUBLIC. ARTILLERY. 
Guns and mortars. 


In Guadalajara, 1 San Juan de Ulua, 

‘“ Zacatecas, me Perote, : : a OO 

«¢ Jalapa, 4 Acapulco, : ; 22 

*¢ Perote, bi | Vera Cruz, . : ao 113 

pyvera Cruz, 2 Monterey, 

‘* Puebla, ae Campeche, 

‘¢ Mexico, 7 Mazatlan, 

‘© Queretaro, . Sal Mexico, 6 

“ Guanajuato, 2 Tabasco, : ; 1 

‘“¢ S. Fernando de Rosas, . 2 Guadalajara, . : ; 9 

‘¢ Matamoros, 1 San Luis Potosi, 8 

“« Tampico, tik Chiapas, 2 

« San Luis Potosi, 2 Chihuahua, Bat 

‘* Oajaca, 1 Bustamante’s deicion Ay Ree! 
30 324 


Total number of projectiles, 52,019. 
The field artillery consists of 16 batteries. 


Navy. 


The coast of the republic, now greatly reduced by the treaty of 
Guadalupe, extends on the Gulf of Mexico, from the Rio Grande 
or Rio Bravo-del Norte, to the port of Bacalar on the east of the 
peninsula of Yucatan, and comprehends in this distance, about five 
hundred and eighty-four leagues. The Pacific coast begins one 
_ league from San Diego in Lower California, and terminates at the 
Barra de Ocos in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, a distance of one thou- 
sand five hundred and twenty leagues, including the coasts of the 
Gulf of California, or sea of Cortéz. Consequently the coasts of 
the republic extend, in all, two thousand one hundred and four 
leagues, demonstrating the admirable situation of this country for 
commerce with all the world. The ports which are open for foreign 
trade in the Mexican Gulf, are Matamoros, Tampico, Vera Cruz 
Campeché, Sisal, and the island of Carmen; while, on the Pacific, 
there are the ports of Guayamas, Mazatlan, San Blas, Manzanillo, 
and Acapulco, the latter of these being the best in the possession 
of Mexico, on the great western ocean. Its harbor is excellent; 
its distance from the capital is comparatively short; its population 
is larger than that of other towns on the coast, and in consequence 
of the difficulty of landing elsewhere than in the actual port, the 
government is effectually secured against illicit trade. It is a site 


128 NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT — VESSELS. 


which should unquestionably be protected and fostered, not only on 
account of the advantages we have mentioned, but because it will 
become a source of riches to the new state of Guerrero, whose 
government will contribute to cement the peace and tend to estab- 
lish the permanent dominion of good order in that quarter. 


The navy of all countries originates in their commerce, but 
Mexico, although situated as we have shown most advantageously 
for trade, has hitherto possessed but few merchantmen and a small 
marine. ‘The vessels of war owned by the republic, previous to 
the conflict with the United States, were either sold, or disarmed, 
dismantled and laid up, when the nation was menaced with an at- 
tack. It was evident to the Mexican cabinet, that the navy could 
not cope with ours, and in order to prevent its total loss, the few 
vessels were voluntarily withdrawn from the sea. The officers, 
however, were generally employed in land duties during the con- 
test, and most of them remained in service until the summer of 
1848, when the most efficient were permanently confirmed in their 
employments, whilst the rest were allowed to retire on unlimited 
leave. 

In considering the actual condition of the national trade and 
treasury, the government did not believe, on the re-establishment 
of peace, that it would be justified in creating at once an extensive 
naval establishment, nevertheless it was convinced that the security 
of the coasts, the protection of its own small trade, and the interest 
of its maritime custom houses, rendered the creation of a flotilla in- 
dispensable. With this view the minister of war and marine re- 
commended in 1849 the naval establishment which is shown in the 
following table. 


Nava EstTapLisHMENnT oF Mexico, 1849. 


The actual naval force consists at present of 1 schooner only; 
but the secretary of war recommended, in addition, the construc- 
tion of : 


1 swivel 32 paixhan, and 2 short 12 
pounders. 

2 cutters suitable for coast service, capable of passing the.shal- 
low bars of rivers, of 70 or 75 tons, and carrying 1 swivel 18 
pounder, and one 12 pounder each. 

4 launches of 20 oars, each of which must be capable of carry- 
ing an 18 pounder. 


1 steamer mounting 


VESSELS. 


a 
: 


EXPENSES OF WAR AND NAVY. 


129 


Officers. In Service. On Leave. 
Captains de Navio, 3 ~ 
oie de Fragata, 6 3 
1st Lieutenant, . 5 1 5 
iy fad 6 7 ae | 
Z| ist Midshipmen, - 4 
a Id a3 i; 1 
= ) Intendentes, 2 ~ 
fs Commissaries, 7 — 
x pace: 4 6 
2° 5 ane | 
90 ce 4 v4 
Clerks, ~ . 11 


Expenses oF War anp Navy or Mexico, 1849, msTimaTED 


BY THE MINISTER. 


Q 


Ministry of war and navy, . : . $55,890..0..06 
Supreme tribunal of war, . é : ; : > 82,7107 73208 
Staff of the army, . : i F ; : : 133,500..0..00 
‘“‘ of the president, : : : ‘ ; » 10,345..4..00 
Headquarters of the army, . : : 50,399..2..06 
Commandancias generales and militar CSiens : » 234,378..5..00 
Detall de plazas, . ; 10,320..0..00 
Engineers, sappers, military college and school, - 218,788..5..06 
Permanent artillery, political ministry, workmen and 
baggage train, . : ; : 670,985..0..00 
8 Battalions of permanent infantry, : . . 1,290,567..1..00 
1 Battalion of active infantry and 6 companies, . 253,109..7..06 
12 squadrons of permanent Sages in 6 corps, . - 628,886..0..00 
Military colonies, . : : cr eee: 727,572..0..00 
Medical staff and ambulance companies, : : » 144,025..4..00 
Expenses at San Luis, . : : : : 5,038..2..00 
Invalids, . : .  84,122..'7..06 
‘Staffs of the army, divisions and brigades, : ; 43,460..3..00 
Officers who by the law of 4th November, 1849, are to 
receive unlimited leave, : . 328,644..0..06 
Officers on unlimited leave, : ; é : : 292,762..5..10 
7 retired, 4 ‘ } : . '668,614..1207 
Disbanded troops, ; 101,283..3..00 
Widows, orphans, and pensioners, ; : ; . 403,499..2..06 
Rewards for bravery, —: : : 15,295..6..07 
For military hospitals and ee & ; . 100,000..0..00 
For improvement and repair of military barracks, : 30,241..0..00 
Contract for mules for artillery trains, , ; . 384,875..6..00 
Extra expenses of war, : : 500,000..0..00 
Expenses of establishment of military pelonics| . 498,635..4..00 
Military commission of statistics, : : 12,098..0..00 
Naval employés, (military and political, ak : .  55,623..7..00 
Total expenses war and navy in 1849, ‘ . $7,685.733..6..06 


CHAPTER, X1. 


THE MEXICAN CHURCH. 


RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MEXICAN CHURCH AND THE POPE. — 
CLERGY, MONKS, NUNS, MONASTERIES, CONVENTS. — WEALTH 
OF THE CHURCH. — RATIO OF CLERGY AND PEOPLE. — HIGH 
AND LOW CLERGY—THEIR HISTORY — VICES. —MONKS— RURAL 
CLERGY — THEIR CHARACTER. — CONDUCT OF CLERGY, PUBLIC 
AND PRIVATE. — MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA — MODE OF CONVER- 
SION. — MONKS IN MEXICO — ZAVALA’S STRICTURES.— PAZO’S 
STRICTURES ON SOUTH AMERICAN CLERGY.— CHURCH IN THE 
UNITED STATES AND IN MEXICO.— CONSTITUTIONAL PROTEC- 
TION OF CATHOLICISM. — DUTY OF THE CHURCH — BULLS— 
PAPER MONEY. 


Tue relations existing between the Mexican church and the 
Papal throne were interrupted by the revolution. Spain and her 
monarchs had ever been distinguished and faithful defenders of the 
Catholic church, and had maintained its power carefully through- 
out all their American possessions. The pope therefore regarded 
the revolution not only as unfavorable to the interest of his allies, 
but as calculated in all probability to introduce ecclesiastical as 
well as political liberty into regions of which his ministers pos- 
sessed the entire dominion. Hence the famous encyclical letter 
of his Holiness of the 24th of September, 1824, directed to the 
Heads of the American church, in which he anathematizes the 
doctrines and principles upon which the revolution was founded. 
But, yielding in the end to circumstances, and probably reassured 
' by the article in the first constitution of Mexico — not yet promul- 
gated when his letter saw the light— by which the Catholic faith 
was permanently confirmed as the national religion, to the exclu- 
sion of all others, he received the rebellious nation once more into 
his flock, as soon as the Mexican government sought readmission. 
This reconciliation was negotiated upon the. same terms that ex- 
isted during the Spanish dominion. 

Even from the epoch of Iturbide’s rule this delicate subject had 
engaged the attention of the rulers, and in 1825 an envoy was sent 


CLERGY, MONKS, NUNS, MONASTERIES, CONVENTS. 131 


to Rome. The ecclesiastical Junto which met in Mexico, had 
striven to reinvest the Metropolitan with the ancient right of institu- 
ting suffragan bishops; but the canonical right has continued in the 
Pope, on the presentation of the government. Nevertheless, efforts 
have been made to extend, substantially the metropolitan powers of 
the Archbishop of Mexico, of whom it was probably desired to 
make the true head of the national church, dependent however upon 
the Roman Pontiff. 


There were in Mexico, according to the best accessible official 
dates, in 1826 
1 Archbishop. 
9 Bishops, in 9 Bichgones 
1 Collegiate Chief at the Collegiate Church of Guadalupe. 
185 Prebends, (79 vacancies thereof, in 1826.) 
1194 Parishes, of one, two, or more churches. 
9 Seminaries (conciliares. ) 
3677 Clergymen (1240 engaged in curacies) and the rest in semi- 
naries, ecclesiastical cures, vicarages, &c.) 


5 Religious orders, owning 
155 Monasteries ; in which there were 
1918 Monks; of whom 
40 Served curacies and 
106 Missions. 
In 47 of these monasteries there were more than twelve monks, 
and in thirty-nine there were less than five. 


6 Colleges de Propaganda Fidé, containing 
307 Clergymen ; of whom 
61 Served in missions. 
2 Congregaciones, with 60 presbyters. 


58 Convents; with 
1931 Nuns, 

622 Girls, 
1475 Servants. 


SUMMARY OF ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONS. 


7999 Clergymen, friars and nuns. 
2097 Servants and girls in convents. 

Since the epoch of independence the orders of Juaninos, Bele- 
mites, and San Lazaro, have been extinguished. 


132 WEALTH OF THE CHURCH. 


In 1844, when the last accurate summary of the Mexican church, 
within our reach, was made, the following was the condition: 


SuMMARY OF Mexican CHurcH In 1844. 


In this year the possessions in conventual establishments of the 
REGULAR ORDERS, was estimated as follows: 


Dominicans, . 5 : : 25 Conventual establishments 
Franciscans, : : . 68 ne < 
Agustines, : : 22 Be Re 
Carmelites, . : ; : Eerie a ore: 
Mercedarios,_ . : ; ; 19 cf ae 

Total, 150 Conventual establishments 
Reeuiar Eccuesiastics:—Monks, . : : » L760 


Nuns, . ‘ ; : 2,000 


3,700 
SEcULAR CLERGY, é : , , . : . 93,000 
Total number in religious orders, ; : 7,20 


The actual property of this establishment has been variously esti- 
mated since the earliest period in which Mexican institutions have 
been described by European writers. The church in Mexico is 
known to be immensely rich, and that its real and personal property 
has been carefully managed by the large body of intelligent men 
who control its affairs. They prudently make no public or statis- 
tical expositions of their interests. 

In 1807, Abad y Quiepo, in a communication to Don Manuel 
Sexto Espinosa, estimated the wealth of the church as follows : 


Rea ESTATE, from $2,500,000 to : 5 ; . § 3,000,000 
PERSONAL INVESTMENTS for secular clergy in 9 bishoprics, 26,000,000 
Oxsras Pras in the church, of ecclesiastics of both sexes, 2,500,000 
ToTaL FUND of the churches and communities of ecclesi- 

astics of both sexes, ; : 4 d : . 16,000,000 


Total, F : : : : ‘ $47,500,000 


In 1831, Don José Maria Mora, a Mexican writer, estimated the 
property of the church at a valuation of at least $75,000,000. ! 


1 Mejico in 1842 by del Rivero. Madrid, 1844. 


RATIO OF CLERGY AND PEOPLE. 133 


In 1844, — and we may consider it nearly the same in 1850, — 


the church property was calculated as follows : 


Real estate — urban and rural, ' 5 . ; $18,000,000 
Churches, houses, convents, curates’ dwellings, furniture, 
jewels, sacred vessels and other personalities, j 52,000,000 


Floating capital, various funds in ecclesiastical treasuries, 
and the capital required to produce the sum annually 
received by the Mexican clergy in alms, diezmos, 
dues, &c. &c., : ; : ; : ; ; 20,000,000 


Total, De Pela a Wa tee 2/0501 04010 0) 


The real estate of the church is estimated by Seftior Otero, — 
from whose work on the social and political condition of Mexico, 
this calculation is taken, — to have been worth at least 25 per cent. 
more before the revolution; and, to this increased value must be 
added about $115,000,000 of capital founded on contribuciones, 
derechos reales, and other imposts which were laid on the property 
of the country for the benefit of the clergy. ! 


It is not to be supposed that the 2,000 nuns are of ecclesiastical 
importance except for charitable and educational purposes ; — if we 
deduct their number, therefore, from the 1,700 monks and 3,500 
secular clergy, we shall have only 3,200 men devoted to the spi- 
ritual wants of more than seven and a half millions or, 2,383 in- 
dividuals assigned to the ecclesiastical charge of each priest, monk 
or curate. And yet, among these men, chiefly, the avails of pro- 
bably more than $90,000,000 of property are to be annually dis- 
tributed or consolidated in a country from which they are constantly 
asking alms instead of bestowing them. 


The value of their churches, the extent of their city property, the 
power they possess as lenders and mortgagees in Mexico, where 
there are no banks, and the enormous masses of church plate, 
golden ornaments and jewels, will swell the above statements and 
estimates of the church’s wealth to nearer one hundred millions than 
ninety, or to about $88,000,000 less than it was before the rebellion 
against Spain; at which period the number of ecclesiastics was 
about 10,000; or 13,000, if the lay brethren and subordinates are 
included in the ecclesiastical census. 2 


" See Otero Cuestion Social y Politica de Mejico, pp. 38, 39, 43. 
* Mexico as it Was and Is, p. 329. 


134 HIGH AND LOW CLERGY — THEIR HISTORY — VICES. 


The agher clergy of Mexico which was once the depository of 
science and general learning, is now only distinguished for its ele- 
gant manners and aristocratic tendencies. Notwithstanding some 
members of the church, in orders and belonging to this class, were 
engaged in the revolutionary struggle, and essentially aided in 
making it effective, the spirit of the remainder, as a body, was in 
reality, antagonistic to the movement. The course of the lower 
clergy, however, was different. ‘The members of this grade threw 
themselves early into the rebellion, and sustained it heroically in its 
most dangerous epochs, until it trrumphed in independence. 

Although there is in Mexico great religious devotion to the 
church, regular observance of its feasts, fasts and ceremonies, and 
obedience to its commands, there prevails, nevertheless, consider- 
able indifference towards its ministers, who, in too many cases have 
justly forfeited popular respect. The curas have united themselves 
effectually with the interests and affections of the people in the 
rural districts where they pass the ordinary, regular life of country 
folks remote from the dissipating influenee of cities. They are 
amiable men, prudent counsellors of all classes, and the hospitable 
hosts of every stranger who visits their parishes. But, in many of 
the towns and cities large numbers of the clergy, both secular and 
regular, have forfeited the personal esteem of the high and low by 
their openparticipation in common social vices. ‘‘'These vices have 
augmented in proportion as the bonds of discipline have been 
loosened by the distracted condition of the country. Gambling 
and dissipation are rooted in the clergy as well as in other classes 
of society ; but we may specially declare that the convents of friars, 
with few exceptions, are in Mexico, sewers of corruption.” ! 
This frail condition of ecclesiastical discipline was satisfactorily 
proved by the state in which the Catholic church of the United 
States found the parishes of Texas at the period of annexation ; 
and, it is likely, that many more flagrant instances of laxity will be 
unveiled in New Mexico and California, to whose distant regions 
our enlightened and pure Catholic clergymen are already directing 
their attention with honest and pious zeal. 

The Spanish government cherished the church, for state as well 
as religious reasons. ‘The mayorazos or rights of primogeniture, 
which bestowed the great bulk of patrimonial estates upon the 
eldest son, necessarily forced the younger offspring of distinguished 
houses either into the army or into the church; and, hence the 
splendid eleemosynary establishments which were erected and en- 


1 Rivero, Mejico in 1842, p. 130. 


= Se * t 
“| : 
i‘. 


MONKS — RURAL CLERGY — THEIR CHARACTER. 135 


dowed all over Mexico, as much for the comfort of these drones 
of the social hive, as for the worship and glory of God. Most of 
the lucrative benefices came in this manner into the hands of the 
Spaniards and their descendants ; and by far the greater portion of 
the higher ecclesiastics were, either influentially allied, or were 
persons of elevated social rank. Thus it is that even at the pre- 
sent day so many men of distinguished manners and monarchical 
tendencies, are found among the “‘high clergy” of Mexico; for 
the epoch of the revolution is not so distant that the old ecclesias- 
tical stock has entirely departed from earth. 

But since the laws of primogeniture have been abolished, — and, 
with them, the ecclesiastical privilege of enforcing the payment of 
tithes to the clergy, —the church has been no longer regarded by 
the best classes as a favorite resort or refuge for their children. 
The revolution, as we have said, disorganized the establishment 
and infused inferior men into the sacred ranks. The material of 
the several brotherhoods degenerated in quality if not in quantity. 
The irregularities of the friars became proverbial throughout the 
republic, and respectable families regarded it as a calamity, or, 
even sometimes, as a degradation, to hear their members pronounce 
a monastic vow. ‘Thus, whilst the church became unpopular 
among the upper classes as a means of subsistence, —its numbers 
were gradually filled and maintained from the humbler ranks, whose 
ignorance and disorderly habits tend more and more to widen the 
difference between the secular and the regular clergy of the repub- 
lic. It is needless to dwell on the baleful influence which such 
debased and pretended ministers of religion, must exercise among 
the common classes of a society over which their ecclesiastical 
authority and the sanctity of their profession gives them control in 
such a country as Mexico. 


We deem it proper to sustain the allegations made especially 
against a large number of the Mexican clergy by citations from 
American, English and Spanish authors upon the country, in 
addition to the quotation already given from Rivero’s ‘ Mexico 
in 1842.” 

Mr. Norman, in his Rambles in Yucatan, whilst graphically de- 
scribing certain festivals, and among them those of Christmas and 
the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, says : —‘“‘ The people tes- 
tify their respect for those festal days, —for so they are denomi- 
nated, — by processions and such amusements as are suited. Not- 
withstanding the acknowledged debasing effects of their sports and 


136 CONDUCT OF CLERGY — PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 


pastimes, which consist wholly of bull baiting, cock fighting and 
gambling, they are not disgraced by either riotousness or drunken- 
ness. * * * The priests give countenance to these recrea- 
tions, if they may be so called, both by their presence and partici- 
pation! * * * The men, women, and children, as soon as they 
had concluded their ceremonies, started, in a body, with revolt- 
ing precipitation, to the gaming tables, which had been set forth 
in the ruins of an old convent adjoining the sanctuary where the 
procession had just been dissolved. Here we found all classes of 
society, male and female. The highest ecclesiastical and civil dig- 
nitaries were there, hob and nob with the most common of the 
multitude.”’? * * * Such is the testimony of Mr. Norman as 
to some of the disgraceful habits of the clergy in Yucatan. Mr. 
Stephens in his travels in the same Mexican state, remarks that 
‘‘except at Merda and Campeché, where they are more immedi- 
ately under the eyes of the bishop, the padres, throughout 
Yucatan, to relieve the tedium of convent life, have compagneras, 
or, as they are sometimes called, hermanas politicas, or, sisters 
in law. * * * * * * * * * 

‘‘ Some look on this arrangement as a little irregular, but, in 
general, it is regarded only as an amiable weakness, and I am safe 
in saying that it is considered a recommendation to a village padre, 
as it is supposed to give him settled habits, as marriage does with 
laymen ; and, to give my own honest opinion, which I did not in- 
tend to do, it is less injurious to good morals than the by no means 
uncommon consequences of celibacy which are found in some other 
Catholic countries. The padre in Yucatan stands in the position 
of a married man, and performs all the duties pertaining to the 
head of a family. Persons of what is considered a respectable 
standing in a village, do not shun left hand marriages with a padre. 
Still it was to us always a matter of regret to meet with individuals 
of worth, and whom we could not help esteeming, standing in what 
could not but be considered a false position. ‘To return to the 
case with which I set out ; — the padre in question was universally 
spoken of as aman of good conduct, a sort of pattern padre for 
correct, steady habits; sedate, grave and middle aged, and appa- 
rently the last man to have an eye for such a pretty compagnera.”” 

As the United States is now interested in the history of Califor- 
nia, it may not be uninteresting or unprofitable, in illustrating this 


1 Norman’s Rambles in Yucatan, p. 32. 2D) Dove 
3 Stephens’ Travels in Yucatan, vol. 2, page 115. 


MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 137 


subject, to exhibit the mode of ecclesiastical operations in regard 
to proselytes in that region, at a recent period. 

“At a particular time of the year,’? we are told by Captain 
Beechey and Mr. Forbes, “‘when the Indians can be spared from 
the agricultural concerns of the establishment, many of them are 
permitted to take the launch of the mission and make excursions to 
the Indian territory. On these occasions the padres desire them 
to induce as many of their unconverted brethren as possible to ac- 
company them back to the mission, of course implying that this is 
to be done only by persuasion ; but the boat being furnished with a 
cannon and musketry, and in every respect equipped for war, it too 
often happens that the neophytes and the gente de razon, who super- 
intend the direction of the boat, avail themselves of their superi- 
ority, with the desire of ingratiating themselves with their masters 
and of receiving a reward. ‘There are, besides, repeated acts of 
aggression which it is necessary to punish, but all of which furnish 
proselytes. Women and children are generally the first objects of 
capture, as their husbands and parents sometimes voluntarily fol- 
low them into captivity. 

‘“‘ One of these proselyting expeditions into their Indian territory 
occurred during the period of Captain Beechey’s visit in 1826, 
which ended in a battle, with the loss, in the first instance, of 
thirty-four of the converted, and eventually in the gain, by a 
second expedition sent to avenge the losses of the first, of forty 
women and children of. the invaded tribes. These were immedi- 
ately enrolled in the list of the mission, and were nearly as imme- 
diately converted into Christians. The process by which this was 
effected is so graphically described by Captain Beechey that it 
would be doing him injustice to use any words but his own. 

‘“¢T happened, he says, to visit the mission about this time and 
saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed 
in blankets, and arranged in a row before a blind Indian, who un- 
derstood their dialect, and was assisted by an alcalde to keep 
order. Their tutor began by desiring them to kneel, informing 
them that he was going to teach them the names of the persons com- 
posing the Trinity, and that they were to repeat in Spanish what 
he dictated. The neophytes being thus arranged, the speaker be- 
gan: “Santissama Trinidad, — Dios, Jesu Christo, Espiritu Santo” 
— pausing between each name, to listen if the simple Indians, who 
had never spoken a Spanish word before, pronounced it correctly 
or any thing near the mark. After they had repeated these names 
satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a pause, added ‘‘ Santos ?? — 

R 


138 MODE OF CONVERSION. 


and recapitulated the names of a great many saints, which finished 
the morning’s tuition. 

‘¢ After a few days, no doubt these promising pupils were chris- 
tened, and admitted to all the benefits and privileges of Christians 
and gente de razon. Indeed, I believe that the act of making the 
cross and kneeling at proper times, and other such like mechanical 
rites, constitute no small part of the religion of these poor people. 
The rapidity of the conversion is, however, frequently stimulated 
by practices much in accordance with the primary kidnapping of 
the subjects. If, as not unfrequently happens, any of the captured 
Indians show a repugnance to conversion, it is the practice to im- 
_ prison them for a few days, and then allow them to breathe a little 
fresh air in a walk round the mission, to observe the happy mode 
of life of their converted countrymen; after which they are again 
shut up, and thus continue incarcerated until they declare their 
readiness to renounce the religion of their forefathers.’ As might 
be believed, the ceremonial exercises of the Roman Catholic reli- 
gion, occupy a considerable share of the time of these people. 
Mass is performed twice daily, besides high-days and holydays, 
when the ceremonies are much grander and of longer duration ; 
and at all the performances every Indian is obliged to attend under 
the penaliy of a whipping ; and the same method of enforcing pro- 
per discipline as in kneeling at proper times, keeping silence, &c., 
is not excluded from the church service itself. In the aisles and 
passages of the church, zealous beadles of the converted race are 
stationed, armed with sundry weapons of potent influence in effect- 
ing silence and attention, and which are not sparingly used on the 
refractory or inattentive. These consist of sticks and whips, 
long goads, &c., and they afe not ies in the hands of the officials 
that sway them. * i 

‘¢The unmarried of both sexes, as well adults as children, are 
carefully locked up at night in separate houses, the keys being left 
in the keeping of the Fathers ; and when any breach of this rule is 
detected, the culprits of both sexes are severely punished by whip- 
ping, —the men in public, the women privately. 

‘<Tt is obvious from all this, that these poor people are in fact 
slaves under another name; and it is no wonder that La Perouse 
found the resemblance painfully striking between their condition 
and that of the negro slaves of the West Indies. Sometimes, al- 
though rarely, they attempt to break their bonds and escape into 
their original haunts. But this is of rare occurrence, as, indepen- 
dently of the difficulty of escaping, they are so simple as to believe 


i 


| 


MONKS IN MEXICO — ZAVALA’S STRICTURES. 139 


that they have hardly the power to do so after being baptised, re- 
garding the ceremony of baptism as a sort of spell which could not 
be broken. Occasionally, however, they overcome all imaginary 
and real obstacles and effect their escape. In such cases, the run- 
away is immediately pursued, and as it is always known to which 
tribe he belongs, and as, owing to the enmity subsisting among the 
tribes, he will not be received by another, he is almost always 
found and surrendered to the pursuers by his pusillanimous coun- 
trymen. When brought back to the mission he is always first 
flogged and then has an iron clog attached to his legs, which has 
the effect of preventing his running away and marking him out, in 
terrorem, to others.”’ ! 

Additional testimony in regard to the evil practices of the 
Mexican padres may be found in the delightful volumes of Madame 
Calderon de la Barca, entitled ‘‘ Life in Mexico,” and published 
in 1842. “ Alas!”?— exclaims this sprightly lady, — speaking 
of the wholesome reforms introduced by the viceroy Revilla-Gigedo 
among the Mexican monks,—‘‘alas! could his excellency have 
lived to these our degenerate days, and beheld certain monks, of a 
certain order, drinking pulque and otherwise disporting themselves; 
—nay, seen one, as we but just now did from our window, stroll- 
ing along the street by lamp-light, with an Indian girl tucked 
under his arm! ”’ 

The author of this slight but significant passage — an American 
lady of the highest character and wife of the first minister sent 
by Spain to Mexico, — cannot be flippantly contradicted by critics 
who would impute to her either prejudice or ignorance. 

Zavala, in his History of the Revolutions of Mexico from 1808 to 
1830, sketches briefly and forcibly some of the earlier features of 
ecclesiastical control in his country. As he was a native and a 
Catholic, he will not be accused of injustice to a church which he 
endeavored to fasten on the nation by his adherence to the consti- 
_ tution which made the Catholic faith the exclusive religion of the 
land. ‘¢ They created missionaries, ” says he, ‘“‘who, by the aid of 
the soldiery, made prodigious proselytes.5 * * * * * * * 
They prepared catechisms and small formularies in the language of 
the natives, not for the perusal of the Indians, who could not read, 
but in order to repeat them in their pulpits and teach them by rote. 
There was not a single translation of the sacred volume in any 
idiom of the country, and there was not an elementary work con- 
taining the principles of their faith. But how could such works 


1 Forbes’s California, p. 215. 


140 PAZO’S STRICTURES ON SOUTH AMERICAN CLERGY. 


exist for the Indians when their conquerors were unable to read 
them? What I desire to prove by this is that religion was neither 
taught the natives nor were they persuaded of its divine origin by 
proof and argument; the whole foundation of their faith was the 
word of their missionaries, and the reason of their belief was the 
bayonet of their conquerors. * * * * * The dependence/of 


the people was a sort of slavery, a necessary consequence of the ~ 


ignorance in which they were brought up, of the terror with which 
the troops and authorities inspired them, of their despotism and 
pride, and more than all, of an inquisition sustained both by the 
military and by the religious superstitions of monks and clergymen 
whose fanaticism was equal to their ignorance. * * * * * 
The catechism of Padre Ripalda, which contains the maxims of a 
blind obedience to the king and pope was the ground work of their 
religion; and their priests, parents and masters inculcated these 
doctrines incessantly. ”” ! 

Don Vincente Pazos, in his celebrated Letters on the United 
Provinces of South America, does not even stop at the clergy, in 
charging a large share of the miseries of his countrymen upon the 
ecclesiastical establishment, but confounds the creed with its un- 
worthy ministers, and strikes even at the religion itself: 

‘‘ Among the evils suffered by the Indians which have been a 
source of unhappiness to them, as well as to all South America, is 
the Roman Catholic religion, which was introduced among them 
by the Spaniards. This religion, in countries where it predomi- 
nates or is connected with the government, is widely different from 
the same religion as it appears in the United States of North Ame- 
rica. Instead of being employed as all religions ought to be, in 
directing the morals, purifying the hearts and restraining the vices 
of the people, — it is so prostituted in Spanish countries, that it 
has become nothing but a mass of superstitious ceremonies, and 
the instrument of avarice and oppression. ” 

The error of the patriotic writer is so evident that it does not 
need exposure. ‘The faith and the friar are different things. Yet 
how deep must be the corruption of a class whose vices force an 
intelligent man, born and educated in the bosom of the church, to 
denounce his religion for the sake of its worthless teachers. 

We have dwelt upon this subject because the religion — and es- 
pecially the protected state religion of a country —is always of 
deep interest when we estimate the resources and character of a na- 
tion. Priests of all creeds obtain a sacred character in the opinion 


1 Zavala, Rey. de Mejico, vol. 1, pp. 14, 25. 


CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN MEXICO. 141 


of the multitude the moment their vow is pronounced at the altar. 
The world believes that they part with human nature in assuming 
the gown, and become in reality, the divimes they are called in the 
fashionable nomenclature of the age. 

The priest, whether Protestant, Catholic, Mahomedan or Chi- 
nese, is ever an important, and often an omnipotent, member of 
the social world. And it behooves society in the nineteenth century 
to cherish Christianity instead of Flamens and Soothsayers. 

It has been our principle through life to cultivate a genial feeling 
of toleration towards all the various sects into which the great 
Christian church is divided. We have resisted bigotry in all its 
shapes, and in all its manifestations, from whatever source. ‘Trust- 
ing in the essential faith and discarding the external form, we have 
regarded all men who knelt at the altar which was cemented with 
the blood of the Nazarine, as a great brotherhood devoted to the 
religious regeneration and consequent civilization of the world. In 
writing, therefore, of the Catholic church in Mexico we have been 
pained to speak disparagingly of a part of the priesthood, whose 
members, in our own country, we had early in life learned to reve- 
rence for their virtuous piety, and admire for their profound learn- 
ing. We know that the great theoretical dogma of that powerful 
church is its wnity, and that its tenets, principles and practices are 
universally the same throughout the world. For opinions given 
and examples cited, in another work, we have been severely re- 
buked, by one of the most learned theologians in the Roman church, 
who argues our wilful error, upon this assumption of theoretical 
identity. But we have the satisfaction to know, not only from 
Mexicans themselves, but from American Catholics who visited the 
country since that criticism was issued, that our descriptions, in no 
instance, surpassed the reality, and that if the ¢enets, be in fact, the 
Same as those entertained by the church at Rome and in the United 
States, the principles, and, especially, the practices of many of its 
ministers, vary extraordinarily from the principles and practices of 
its ministers here. In another portion of this work we may, pro- 
bably, notice some of those practices more fully. 

The facts we have been obliged to state in regard to some of the 
materiel of the present Mexican ecclesiastical establishment do not 
touch the dogmas of the Catholic church though they certainly in- 
dicate so great a degree of laxity in the administration of a power- 


' See Mayer’s Mexico as it Was and as it Is, 1844; and the review of it by the 
Rey. Mr. Verot, in the United States Catholic Magazine for March, 1844: See also 
the reply entitled Romanism in Mexico, published in Baltimore in the same year. 


142 CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF CATHOLICISM. 


ful moral, civil and religious engine endowed with immense re- 
sources, that they should attract the reforming notice of those pure 
branches of the Roman fraternity whose proximity will best afford 
them the occasion to counsel their brethren in an age of progress 
and competition not only in trade but in religion. Texas has al- 
ready improved under the auspices of a new ecclesiastical adminis- 
tration since her union with the North American states and her 
religious alliance with their Roman Catholic Archbishopric. Nor is 
the importance of these ameliorations less demanded at the hands 
of republican ecclesiastics when we recollect that the federal con- 
stitution adopted in 1847, now the fundamental law of the land, 
declares in its first title, that the ‘‘religion of the Mexican nation 
is, and will be perpetually, the Catholic, apostolic, Roman. The 
nation protects it by wise and just laws, and prohibits the exercise 
of any other!” Men, in Mexico, must not only not pray as they 
please, but, constitutionally, they must not believe as they please. A 
priesthood which is thus indissolubly and exclusively welded to the 
state in a republic, should be, indeed, peculiarly sacred and pure. 
Sole, despotic ecclesiastical power, based upon numerical strength, 
— intolerant of all other modes of worship or modifications of 
Christianity, —is an anomaly in the nineteenth century, nor is it 
likely that the civil liberty of a nation can ever become secure or 
worthy, until religious liberty is, at least, permitted if not enjomed 
by its paramount law. ‘These two elements of human right and 
progress have ever moved hand in hand. It is a mockery to sepa- 
rate them and tell the people they are free. The indefeisible rights 
of reason and judgment are sapped and stifled. When conscience, 
even, must struggle with legal shackles in its intercourse with God, 
what must be the conflict of the soul in its intercourse with man! 


‘We speak not of mens’ creeds — they rest between 
Man and his Maker ; ”? — 


but we have confined our observations in this work, exclusively to 
those painful exhibitions which cannot fail to strike a stranger as 
disadvantageous both to intellectual progress and the pure and spi- 
ritual adoration of God. The mixture of antique barbaric show 
and Indian rites, may have served to attract the native population 
at. the first settlement of the country; but their continuance is in 
keeping neither with the spirit of the age nor the necessities of a 
republic. While the priesthood has contrived, in the course of 
centuries, to attract the wealth of multitudes, and to make itself, in 
various ways, the richest proprietor of the nation, the people have 
been impoverished and continued ignorant. Not content with the 


DUTY OF THE CHURCH — BULLS — PAPER MONEY. 143 


natural influence possessed by a church whose members are spread 
all over the republic, the hierarchy of Mexico, has exacted a con- 
stitutional recognition not only of its permanence, but of its right 
to exclude all other faiths, and all other religious reunions for wor- 
ship. It appears, therefore, just that in such a republic it was the 
duty of the Roman church voluntarily to unfetter its wealth, to re- 
form its priesthood, to sweep into the public coffers the useless 
jewels that adorn the altars and statues, yet do not glorify the Al- 
mighty; and to imitate the virtues, resolution and self-denial of its 
ministers in our country, who, while blending themselves in politics 
and public spirit most effectually with the masses, have devoted 
their lives to the education of people of all creeds and classes for 
support and independence. 

‘Far from the goods of the church being exempted because they 
are consecrated to God,” says Vattel in his immortal work, ‘it is 
for that very reason that they should be the first taken for the wel- 
fare of the state. There is nothing more agreeable to the common 
Father of men than to preserve a nation from destruction. As God 
has no need of property, the consecration of goods to him, 1s their 
devotion to such purposes as are pleasant to him. Besides, — the 
property of the church, by the confession of the clergy themselves, 
is chiefly destined for the poor; and when the state is in want, it 
is, doubtless, the first pauper, and the worthiest of succor. ”’ ! 


1 We trust that it will not be regarded as levity if we relate an anecdote which 
shows that the church has contributed to the money if not to the wealth of the 
country, in years past, in a most unexampled manner. It will be recollected that 
in the historical part of this work there is an account of the mode in which a large 
revenue was derived by the government from the sale of Bulls issued by the church 
permitting the people a variety of indulgences and acts which, without the posses- 
sion of such a document, were not allowed by the spiritual laws of Rome, or the 
temporal laws of Spain. Immense packages of these Bulls were found in the 
treasury after the revolution, and, when it became necessary for the government to 
issue a temporary paper money, the financiers of the nation thought it a wise stroke 
to make these Bulls at once a license of indulgence to the holder, and a security 
against counterfeiters. Accordingly they printed the government notes on the blank 
back of the Bulls, which had been sent from Spain to supply her revenue. One of 
these treasury notes, now before us, measures twelve inches in length by nine in 
breadth, and promises to pay two dollars. The Bull upon which it is printed is an 
indulgence, valued at “‘ two coined silver reals, ” or, twenty-five cents, allowing the 
possessor to eat “‘ wholesome meat, eggs and milk,” during lent and on fast days. 


CHAPTER XII. 


CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS. 


VARIOUS CHANGES OF THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION. — PRESENT 
ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS. — 

. CONSTITUTION OF 1847. — LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIARY — NA- 
TIONAL AND STATE. — JUDICIARY — ADMINISTRATION OF JUS- 
TICE — CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCESS — MAL-ADMINISTRATION 
OF JUSTICE. —— PRISONS — CRIME— ACCORDADA. — CONDITION 
OF PRISONS. — STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CAPITAL — GAR- 
ROTTE. — MEXICAN OPINIONS. 


Since the downfall of Iturbide the body politic of Mexico has 

passed through many stages of revolutionary and factious disease. 
Four constitutions have been formed and adopted by the people or 
their temporary rulers independently of the Bases de Tacubaya, 
under which Santa Anna ruled despotically until the month of 
June, 1843. These are the Federal Constitution of 1824; the 
Bases y Leyes Constitutionales, or, Central Constitution of 1836 ; 
the Bases Organicas de la Republica Mejicana of 1843, and the 
restored Federal Constitution, with amendments by an acta de re- 
formas, in 1847. Five great-organic changes, in twenty-six years, 
have thus continually swayed the people between Federation and 
Centralism ; and we may hope that, after all these vital alterations, 
besides all the minor military pronunciamentos or gritos, which, in 
the intervals have vexed the public tranquillity, the country has, 
at length settled down firmly upon the reliable basis of a great 
but balanced confederacy. 

The Constitution of 1847 creates a Federal Republic ; and, with 
the exception of the intolerant articles in regard to religion upon 
which we have commented in the preceding chapter, it is a docu- 
ment worthy of freemen who desire to avoid consolidation and are 
anxious to preserve the distinct, responsible activity of their states. 
This instrument, after indicating the subdivision of the whole terri- 
tory into the states heretofore enumerated in Chapter Ist, deposes 
the national legislative power in a Congress formed of a house of 
representatives and a senate, the representatives being chosen 
every two years by the citizens of the states, in the ratio of one for 
every fifty thousand souls or for any fraction beyond twenty-five 


CONSTITUTION OF 1847. 145 


thousand, while the senate is composed of two members from each 
state, elected by the legislatures, one-third of that body being re- 
newable every two years. ‘There are now one hundred and forty 
deputies, each of whom receives a salary of three thousand dollars ; 
and sixty-three senators, whose yearly pay is three thousand five 
hundred each. 

The executive power resides in a president, who is eligible every 
four years, and cannot be re-elected except after an interval of four 
years. ‘There is no vice president; and, in case of the death or 
perpetual incompetency of the president, congress, or in its recess 
the council of government, shall call upon the state legislatures to 
fill his place by election. The ordinary and regular election of the 
chief magistrate, of deputies, senators and ministers of the supreme 
court of justice, is to be regulated by general laws, and may be 
either by the people directly or by electoral colleges; but in these 
indirect elections no one can be named, either as a primary or 
secondary elector, who holds a political office or exercises civil, 
ecclesiastical, or military jurisdiction in the district he represents. 
The salary of the president is thirty-six thousand dollars a year. 
During the recess of the general congress a council of government 
is to be constantly in existence, composed of one half of the senate, 
one member being retained from each state. The duties of this 
council are confined chiefly to a salutary vigilance over the consti- 
tution and laws, and to the convocation of extraordinary sessions 
of the national legislature, either in conjunction with the president 
or by its sole act. ‘he cabinet consists of a minister of foreign 
and domestic affairs ; a minister of justice; a minister of finance; 
a minister of war and marine, each of whom receive an annual 
salary of six thousand dollars. 

Each state government is independent within its local jurisdic- 
tion, and, like the federal government has, executive, legislative 
and judicial powers. The law making power of each of these goy- 
ernments resides in a legislature composed of the number of mem- 
bers which may be determined by its separate constituency, all of 
whom shall be elected by the people and removable at the time 
and in the manner they may think proper to decree, The persons 
to whom the sovereign states confide their executive power, can 
only exercise it for a time fixed by each respective state constitu- 
tion. The power and jurisdiction of the national judiciary are 
amply defined so as to avoid conflict. The state judicial power is 
to be exercised by the tribunals created or appointed by the 
state constitutions, and all civil or criminal causes recognized by 

s 


146 LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIARY — NATIONAL AND STATE. 


those courts shall be conducted in them to a final hearing and to 
the execution of the sentence. Every male person either born 
in the republic or naturalized, who attains the age of twenty years, 
possesses the means of honest livelihood, and has not been sen- 


tenced by legal process for any infamous crime, is declared to be a 


citizen of Mexico, and enjoys the right to vote, to petition, to meet 
others in the discussion of public affairs and to belong to the 
national guard. The exercise of these rights of citizenship may 
however be suspended in consequence of confirmed intemperance, 
professional gambling, a vagabond life, the assumption of religious 
orders, by legal interdict, in virtue of crimes which cause loss of 
citizenship, and by inexcusable refusal to serve in public employ- 
ment when appointed by the people. 


ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 


The federal constitution of 1824, introduced into Mexico, as we 
have seen, two general orders of tribunals; those of a federal or 
national character, and those of the states. The power of these 
judiciaries was deposited in a supreme court, and in circuit and 
district courts; and causes were taken from one to the other, by 
appeals, or in other words, passed by grades from the lowest to 
the highest, according to the nature of the transactions they in- 
volved. The jurisdiction of these courts was of course very exten- 
_ sive; yet it was not paramount or universal over all classes of 
Mexican society, inasmuch as large numbers of Mexicans were 
exempted by fweros or special privileged jurisdictions, from the 
control of the constitutional courts. The fueros were chiefly those 
of the military and ecclesiastics. There was a common military 
Jwuero in civil and criminal matters, which authorized the parties to 
have their causes tried before the commanding generals, and, on 


appeals, before the supreme tribunal of War and Marine, whilst. 


there was another right of trial, or jurisdiction for military misde- 
meanors, before the council of war of general officers. There 
were, besides these, three special fueros of war ;— one of artillery, 
one of engineers, and another of the active militia. The ecclesias- 
tical fuero, gave an appeal from the bishop to the metropolitan, or 
from the archbishop to the nearest prelate ;—Jif the metroplitan 
commenced a cause, an appeal lay to the bishop who was his near- 
est neighbor; and, on a third trial, to another neighboring episco- 
pate. Notwithstanding these military and ecclesiastical fueros 
were permitted to exist by special favoritism after the republic was 
formed, the Mexicans suppressed, after 1824, the fueros of the 


a 


JUDICIARY — ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 147 


consulados and of the mineria, or the mercantile and mining tribu- 
nals, both of which were sanctioned by experience or convenience, 
and whose foundations had been laid in the best principles of 
jurisprudence. To compensate, however, for the destruction of 
such useful institutions, it was determined that, in the federal 
districts and territories, suits growing out of mercantile transac- 
tions should be decided, in the first instance, by the ‘‘ Alcaldes”’ 
or judges de letras, with whom were associated two colleagues pro- 
posed by the parties, and from whom an appeal might be taken to 
the supreme court. No special tribunal was created for the min- 
ing interests. In the federal districts and territories a primary tri- 
bunal was constituted for the trial of culprits, before an Alcalde 
and two Regidores; from whom an appeal lay to another Alcalde 
or Regidor and two associates, one of whom was named by the 
Syndic, and the other by the criminal. This correctional police, 
which has since been somewhat modified, disposed summarily of 
the greater part of malefactors in Mexico, and was empowered to 
sentence to the extent of six years imprisonment. ‘The central 
constitution of 1836 modified this judicial system, and constituted 
judges de partido,— Jueces Departamentales, and a supreme court. 
The federal jurisdiction was confined to admirality cases, fiscal 
transactions, and causes which concerned the public functionaries, 
while the military and ecclesiastical tribunals were left untouched. 

Santa Anna during his last administration suppressed the district 
and circuit judiciary, and extended the jurisdiction of the common 
tribunals. But he restored the mercantile and mining “ fueros ”’ 
which were loudly demanded by public opinion. One of the few 
really good and useful provisions of the Spanish constitution has 
always been preserved in all the changes of Mexican legislation. 
This is the gudgment of concihation, by which litigant parties were 
prohibited from originating an action until they procured a certifi- 
cate from an Alcalde, — who was not a lawyer, — that a judgment 
by arbitration or conciliation had failed before him on trial. This 
is an admirable device and terminates multitudes of law suits in 
Mexico when men fear to encounter the costs and procrastination 
of the courts. It might be successfully grafted on our own system 
of tribunals, where it would doubtless benefit the clients though it 
might impair the professional revenue of the counsellors. 

By the readoption of the federal constitution of 1824, in the year 
1847, the judicial system was brought back from the changes of 
1836 and 1843 to its former condition. The laws of Mexico, 
founded upon the old Spanish colonial legislation, and improved, 


148 CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCESS. 


in some measure, by the modification of state and national legisla- 
tures under the republic, constitute a vast and chaotic mass of 
principles, commentaries and decisions, which require a life time 
of studious toil to master and expound. The mixture of constitu- 
tional tribunals and specially privileged jurisdictions, under the 
system of fueros,—created a complication of judicial functions, 
which greatly narrowed the chances of a pure administration of law. 
The Mexican advocates, among whom many are distinguished 
for their learning and studious habits, are not, when considered as 
a professional body, comparable, either in information or ability, to 
their British, French, German or American brethren. The cum- 
brous formalities of Spanish law form a prolific hot-bed of special 
pleading, chicanery, and delay. A Mexican law suit is a proverb 
of procrastination. There are cases in Mexico in which the first 
paper was filed more than a hundred years ago. The suitor is not 
only impeded by every device that cunning and exaction can throw 
in his way, but there is cause to believe that the path of justice is 
sometimes impeded by the barrier of a bribe. If a Mexican lawyer 
is unable to force his cause to a final verdict, he is at least always 
prepared to assign plausible reasons for the tedious delay with 
which it halts and lingers in the forums. Nor is the value of legal 
costs unknown in Mexico, either by judges, notaries, or clerks. 
In proportion as the litigants are wealthy, or as it 1s necessary that 
their cause sho ld be speedily decided, so are the greedy officials 
slow in preparing it for a final hearing and decree. ‘The maxim in 
Mexico is — ‘‘ mas vale una mala composicion que un buen pleito, ”’ 
—a bad compromise is better than a good law suit. ‘There are 
men, ’? said a member of the Mexican cabinet to congress, in 
1830, — “‘who exercise the mght of life and death over their 
equals, whom the arm cf justice does not venture to reach; and, 
thus, as the bonds of society are effectually dissolved, individuals 
owe security, rather to their personal power, than to the protection 
they have a right to expect from the laws.”? ‘There are many 
criminals throughout the republic who have long offended with im- 
punity while every species of chicanery has been taken advantage 
of to secure their life and liberty. Witnesses are sometimes intimi- 
dated, false oaths sworn, and terrible menaces whispered in the 
ears of the timid; nor are these base threats always left unexecuted 
if the victim is finally condemned and punished. 


In the space of six months, during the end of 1841 and begin- 
ning of 1842, several horrible assassinations were perpetrated in 


MALADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 149 


Mexico. An old Spanish porter was slain and cruelly mutilated in 
his dwelling, in the capital. So scandalous a deed excited univer- 
sal indignation. The judicial authorities of the capital ordered 
‘rigorous proceedings against the culprit, but, after the case had 
been tried, and the murderer condemned to lose his life, he was 
pardoned in consequence of a threat that he would make important 
or disagreeable revelations if the sentence were executed. Another 
Spaniard, —a planter of standing in his district, — was murdered 
by the servants of a neighboring hacitendado, with whom he had a 
dispute in regard to water-rights. The cause was tried, and the 
instigator and his tools were imprisoned. Yet the arm of justice 
was withheld by intrigue and corruption. Another Spanish plan- 
ter, in the south, — a physician by profession, and a man incapable 
of injuring any one, — was foully killed by a band of Indians, nine 
of whom were ‘shot for the crime. These miserable wretches had 
been but the struments of higher criminals who were well known 
to the public, nevertheless they were too powerful to be made re- 
sponsible for their shameful crime. At Tacubaya, in 1842, an 
English .gentleman and his wife, whilst indulging in an evening 
walk were assassinated and brutally mutilated. But justice was 
for a long time foiled in its retributive efforts. Nor is it likely that 
the culprits would ever have expiated their guilt on the scaffold 
had not the foreign population loudly demanded, and liberally paid 
for their conviction. In 1839, the Mexican judges gave a striking 
example of firmness in the execution of a capital sentence, decreed 
in a case which lasted four years against a colonel of the army and 
his companions. It was proved that this scoundrel whilst residing 
in the national palace as one of the aid-de-camps of the president, 
had been the chief of a band of robbers who committed their offences 
not only on the highway, but in the metropolis itself. The honor- 
able result in this case was chiefly owing to the firmness of the 
attorney general, who resisted the threats and the bribes of the 
criminal’s powerful friends. Yet he, probably, paid for his firm- 
ness with his life, for he died shortly after the execution, and there 
is reason to believe, that he perished by foul means. During the 
administration of Santa Anna in 1842 and 1843, the most energetic 
efforts were made to free the country and the public roads, from the 
hordes of robbers that thronged them. The highway from Vera 
Cruz to Mexico was filled with thieves, whose favorite haunts were 
in the neighborhoods of Perote and Puebla, within the hearing of 
whose sentinels they almost daily exercised their vocation upon 
travellers in the diligence. Santa Anna placed large bodies of 


150 PRISONS — CRIME — ACCORDADA. 


cavalry on the route as soon as he came to power, and numerous 
arrests were made which were followed by the prompt conviction 
and execution of the bandits. No mercy was shown. The rob- 
bers were garroted, in pairs, in the towns along the road and in the 
capital; and thousands turned out morning after morning to witness 
the tragic end of these merciless wretches. For a short time the 
road was free; but, in a few months, new bands replaced the exe- 
cuted robbers, and, since the war with the United States, the main 
highway of Mexico has become as insecure as of old. 


Prisons — CRIME. 


The prisons of the city of Mexico are in a wretched condition, 
and, although it has often been proposed to introduce some of the 
modern penitentiary systems of Europe and the United States, we 
are not aware that any thing has been done to effect this desirable 
end. ‘The Accorpapa is the common prison of Mexico. In front 
of one of its wings, at a low window protected by stout iron bars, 
are laid, every morning, the dead bodies that have been found 
throughout the city during the night. Every day these frightful 
evidences of murder or violent death are exposed to the gaze of 
citizens as they pass onward towards the western limits of the city. 
Sometimes five dead bodies have been seen at one ,time in this 
Morgue of Mexico; — and, on days succeeding festivals, the num- 
ber is sometimes largely augmented. These unfortunate wretches 
are the victims of quarrels, or sudden fights ; and the front of the 
deadly window is commonly crowded with women and children— 
the relatives of the victims who come thither to seek after or to 
gaze their last on friend, father or husband. 

Loathsome as is this exhibition on the exterior of the Accordada, 
the interior of this edifice is scarcely less frightful. Like all large 
Spanish edifices it is quadrangular. A strong military guard 
watches the gate, and a gloomy stairway leads to the second story, 
whose entrance is guarded by a massive portal. Inside of this, a 
lofty room is filled with the prison officers and a crowd of subalterns 
engaged in writing, talking, smoking and walking, whilst the clank 
of chains, the shouts of prisoners and the constant din of a disor- 
derly establishment, add to the disgusting sounds and demeanor 
within. 

Passing through several iron and wood barred gates, you enter 
a lofty corridor, running around a quadrangular court-yard, in the 
centre of which, below, is a fountain of troubled water. ‘The 
whole of this area is filled with human beings, —the great congress 


CONDITION OF PRISONS. 151 
* 


of Mexican crime, — mixed and mingling, like a hill of busy ants 
swarming from their sandy caverns. Some are stripped and bath- 
ing in the fountain;—some are fighting in a corner ;— some 
making baskets in another. In one place a crowd is gathered 
around a witty story-teller, relating the adventures of his rascally 
life. In another, a group is engaged in weaving with a hand- 
loom. Robbers, murderers, thieves, ravishers, felons of every 
description, and vagabonds of every grade or aspect, are crammed 
within this dismal court-yard ; and, almost free from discipline or 
moral restraint, form, perhaps, the most splendid school of misde- 
meanor and villany on the American continent. 

Below, — within the corridor of the second story, — another 
class of criminals is kept; and yet, even here, men under sentence 
of death, are pointed out who are still permitted to go about with- 
out restraint. 

In one corner of the quadrangle is the chapel, where convicts 
for capital offences are condemned to solitude and penance, during 
the three last days of their miserable life; and, at a certain hour, it 
is usual for all the prisoners to gather in front of the door and 
chant a hymn for the victim of the laws. It is a solemn service of 
crime for crime. 

The women are not generally seen in the Accordada, but their 
condition is but little better than that of the males. About one 
hundred of the men, chained in pairs like galley slaves, are driven 
daily, under a strong guard, into the streets as scavengers ; and it 
seems to be the chief idea of the utility of prisons in Mexico, to 
support this class of coerced laborers. 

There can be no apology, at this period of saree enlightenment 
in the world, for such disgraceful exhibitions of the congregated 
vice of a country or capital. Punishments, or rather incarceration 
or labor on the streets, is in reality no sacrifice, because public ex- 
hibition deadens the felon’s shame, inasmuch as such inflictions 
cannot become punishments, under any circumstances of a /epero’s 
life. Indeed, what object in existence can the Mexican /epero pro- 
pose to himself? His day is one of precarious labor and income ; 
—he thieves ;——he has no regular home, or if he has, it is some 
miserable hovel of earth and mud, where his wife and children 
crawl about with scarce the instinct of beavers. His food and 
clothing are scant and miserable. He is without education or 
prospect of social improvement. He belongs to a class that does 
not rise, for his class is ostracised by hereditary public opinion. 
He dulls his sense of present misery by intoxicating drinks. His 


152 STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CAPITAL. 


, 
quick temper stimulates him to quarrel. His sleep, after a 
debauch, is unrefreshing, and he only wakes to encounter another 
day of uncertainty and wickedness. What, then, is the value of 
life to him, or one like him? Why toil? Why not steal? What 
Shame has he? Is the prison, with certainty of food, a greater 
punishment than the free air with uncertainty? On the contrary, 
he regards it as a lighter punishment, whilst he is altogether insen- 
sible to its moral degradation. 
Mexico will thus continue to be infested with felons, as long 
as its prison is a house of refuge, and a comparatively happy home 
to so large a portion of its outcasts. ! 


STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CapPiITAL, 1826 — 1836 — 1842. 


The following table exhibits the conditon of the public prisons 
of Mexico in 1826. 


Inmates on the 81st Dec., 1825, , , F Dae 
For Homicides and their accomplices, . 151 
Entered | ‘ Robbery, ‘“ ee ee : 1090 | 
in 1826.< ‘ Rioting and bearing arms, ; . 2,011 > 4,750 
‘* Incontinence (incontinencia, ) : 543 
‘¢ Various crimes, ; f : : 955 | 
Total number of persons, . : : : 5,303 
Of these there were 
Released, : : Ae 
Sentenced to death by earrotte, 7 
is to prison for terms, . . ; 67 
to public works, . : . 159 > 4,628 
sf to house of correction, . ‘ : 3 
oF to service of the prison, : » 229 
cs chained at various places, 8 
Remaining on the 31st December, 1826, ; ; 675 


Miuitary TrRIALs AND JUDGMENTS IN 1826. 


Entered prison, to be judged by aa aca : 462 


Sentenced to punishment, : 8 
cf to prison, 5 ; ; ‘ . A8 
id to military service, : 5 : 9) 
ct to public works, : ; : 2) ae 
a to house of carection: : ' : 6 362 
Liberated, . £ ; : ‘ : y £22 
Escaped, : : : : : 12 
Died, 5 ; : 5 2 
Delivered to the ordinary tribunals, : : : 14 
Remaining at end of 1826. : : . : - 100 


1 Mexico as it was and as it is, p. 269. 


. 
STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CAPITAL. 153 


A Mexican statistical bulletin, presents the following picture of 
the criminal condition of the federal district, for the 8 first months 
of the year 1836. During this period “’. were 255 arrests ; 53 
were immediately released and 202 remained in prison. These 
were divided as follows: 


Homicide, : . : 5 Counterfeiting money, . 15 
Wounding severely, . . 30 Forgery of documents, 5. al 
Robbery, . : ; 8 Drunkenness, . ; tole | 
Attempt torob, . é ele Quarreling, . : : 41 
Suspected of ee : 30 Resistance of authority. . 2 
Rioting, 5 : 37 -— 
iiceanaeics ; P on tA Total, ; ; 202 


which would give for the whole twelve months, at the same rate, 269 
for the number retained. 


In this statement, fifteen individuals are reported as being im- 
prisoned for counterfeiting coin, yet it is notorious that, at this 
epoch, all Mexico was converted into a manufactory of false 
money, for the country was deluged with copper. It is boldly 
alleged that deputies, generals, and merchants, participated in this 
scandalous and bold speculation. Santa Anna, in order to check 
this national evil, decreed that counterfeiting should be considered 
a military crime, and the offenders made liable to the summary and 
severe trials which usually take place when soldiers are both 
judges and jurymen. 


The subjoined statistics bring these statements nearer our own 
period, and afford means of comparison with antecedent dates : 
IMpRISONMENTS IN THE City oF Mexico For 1842. 


In the first 6 months of 1842, there were imprisoned in 


the city of Mexico, . 3,197 men. 
In the first 6 months of 1842, fe ae i: 1,427 women. 
In the second 6 months of 1842, “ i Su 2,858 men. 
In the second 6 months of 1842, ‘ ee : 1,379 women. 

Imprisonment of both sexes this year, : 8,861 


We will not swell these tables by specifying each of the crimes 
for which these 8861 individuals were incarcer ed; but will merely 
note the chief violations of law and the number of the respective 
offenders : 


154 GARROTTE — MEXICAN OPINIONS. . 


Men. Women. Total. 
Robbery, : ‘ - 1,500 470 1970 
Prostitution, adultry, bigamy, sodomy and incest, 312 179 491 
Quarreling, wounding, . »: 5 : : 2,129 1,140 3,233 


Rioting and bearing arms, : 612 444 1,056 
Homicide and attempt at ditto, and robbery and 

homicide, : »it toa 17 87 
Rape and incontinence, é ; . . 65 21 86 
Horeery, +. : ; ; : yen 1 § 
Gambling, : i ; 4 ‘ 3 0 3 
Total, , : - 6934 

High grades of crime, : . 6934 

Misdemeanors, : : : 1927 

Total, 5 ; : ; . 8861 


$4,121 were expended for salaries in the Acordada; and $30,232 
for the maintenance of.the prisoners. It should be stated, moreover 
that a large number of the above criminals were committed and 
punished for throwing vitriol on the dress and faces of persons in 
the street ;—that 113 dead bodies were found ; — 894 individuals 
sent to hospitals; and 17 executed by the garrotte. ‘The culprit 
who is sentenced to this mode of expiating his crime is seated in a 
chair on the scaffold, whilst his neck is embraced by an iron collar 
which may be contracted by a screw. A sudden and rapid turn of 
the lever drives a sharp point through the spinal marrow at the mo- 
ment that the band closes around the throat and strangles the victim. 


Norte. — In confirmation of all we have said in this chapter in regard to the ad- 
ministration and condition of law in Mexico, and in relation to the army, we refer 
to an able pamphlet published in that country, in 1848, entitled ‘* Consideraciones sobre 
la Situacion Politica y Social de la Republica Mejicanaen el ano 1847,” written, we 
understand, by Don Francisco Lerdo. It presents a dark picture of the country at 
that epoch ; but the author’s purpose was to unmask the social and political diseases 
of his country, and his patriotic task was the more needed-because that country was 
on the brink of ruin from war. 

It is to be especially noted with commendation that the Mexicans have recently 
become the severest critics not only of their institutions but of themselves. The 
miserable, boasting spirit, —the taste for grandiloquent proclamations, — the in- 
discriminate laudation of Mexican virtue, talent, science, honor, valor, and justice, 
which filled the papers and pamphlets of the nation, but which were never sustained 
when the Mexicans came in contact either with highly cultivated foreigners or 
were opposed by foreign arms, have all been greatly qualified since the war. The 
combined lessons of her unsparing but truthful satirists and of her invading ene- 
mies, will not be lost on a people really sensible and sensitive, though bewildered 
for more than a quarter of a century during which bombast served for glory or con- 
solation when anarchy was not altogether triumphant. In confirmation of this 
growing spirit of self-examination with a view to national reform, we would also 
refer to the discreet and able memoir of Don Luis G. Cuevas, minister of foreign 
and domestic relations, read by him before the Chamber of Deputies, on the 5th of 
January, 1849. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


REFLECTIONS UPON THE REPUBLIC. 


WHAT MEXICO HAS DONE — REVIEW OF HER CONDUCT AND CHAR- 
ACTER. — MEXICAN OPINIONS — CLASSES — INDIANS — MESTI- 
ZOS — WHITES — ARMY — CHURCH. — DIVISIONS OF WHITES — 
WANT OF HOMOGENEOUSNESS.— WANT OF NATIONALITY AND OF 
A PEOPLE —REMEDIES — EMIGRATION — RELIGIOUS LIBERTY — 
POLITICAL ORDER — LABOR. 


Every reader who has accompanied us thus far in studying the 
history, geography, resources, and character of Mexico, will scarcely 
require to be told why it is that the nation has continued disor- 
ganized and become impoverished in the midst of such abundance 
as has been lavished upon it by the beneficence of God. At the 
conclusion of our chapter upon the commerce of Mexico we de- 
scribed the remarkable geographical position of the territory, and 
have shown that, by the laws of nature, it ought to enjoy a con- 
trolling influence in the affairs of the world. And yet almost three 
centuries and a half have rolled over since Cortéz planted the 
Spanish banner on the palaces of ‘Tenochtitlan, and still the ques- 
tion may be asked whether the region is more progressive under 
republican and royal rule than under Aztec sway? The world has 
advanced in commerce, manufactures, science, literature and arts, 
but Mexico has remained comparatively fixed in the midst of a stag- 
nant semi-civilization. She has not exhibited a true warlike char- 
acter either in her domestic broils or in her opposition to a foreign 
invader, though her soil has been converted into a camp for nearly 
forty years. She has confessed her manifold errors by her indem- 
nities and her diplomacy, though she has contrived to invite quar- 
_ rels, discussions and affronts by an aggressive demeanor towards 
sojourners in her territory. A religious country by the protective 
sanction of all her constitutions, still she denies the right of consci- 
enticus worship to all who come within her borders. With a 
military police, and an immense array of judicial officers, her cities 
and highways are’ thronged with felons while the disputes of her 
citizens linger undecided for years in her courts. Her domestic 
markets are dear, and she has but little to spare for foreign com- 
merce, though her soil is extraordinarily fertile and her climate yields 


156 REVIEW OF HER CONDUCT AND CHARACTER. 


the fruits and grains of the temperate and tropical zones. Throned 
on mines, she is a borrower at exhorbitant usury. Washed by the 
two great oceans of the globe, her mariners are fishermen and her 
vessels skiffs. Ready at all times to borrow from every capitalist, 
she sees her opulent citizens send their wealth abroad for invest- 
ment in spite of the tempting interest she promises to pay. Boast- 
ing of faith, she is without credit. At peace with mankind and 
fortified by nature, she is forced to maintain an army either to pro- 
tect her from herself or to bribe the innumerable remnants of her 
military politicians into peace. Endowed with a constitution and 
enjoying the name of a republic, she beholds that constitution vio- 
lated or overthrown by her army without even demanding the con- 
sent of the people. Vaunting, in the most grandiloquent language, 
her intelligence, glory and resources, she exhibits not a single evi- 
dence of that patriotic unity and order which would entitle her to 
domestic confidence and. foreign respect. Owning an extensive 
territory which is attractive not only for its essential qualities but 
for its magnificent beauty and grandeur, she has drawn to her 
shores, since the conquest, only a million of white men. Losing 
Texas, which in her hands had been, for all this time, a howl- 
ing wilderness possessed by beasts and savages, she sees that state 
become, under the magic influence of another race, an independent 
nation, a maritime power, a commercial territory yielding millions 
annually for the trade of the world. Surrendering California as a 
boon for peace, she beholds in a single year, the sands that had 
been trodden by her own people for several centuries, turn to gold 
in the developing hand of the energetic emigrants to whom it was 
given up. Impoverished, haughty, uneducated, defiant, bigoted, 
disputatious, without financial credit, beaten in arms, far behind the 
age in mechanical progress or social civilization and loaded with 
debt, Mexico presents a spectacle in the nineteenth century, which 
moves the compassion of reflective men even if it does not provoke 
the cupidity of other races to wrest from her weak grasp a region 
whose value she neither comprehends nor develops. This com- 
passion is the result of a genuine sympathy with the true patriots 
who really love their country and know its worth, but whose num- 
bers are too few to cope with the scandalous intriguers and ambi- 
tious soldiers by whom the nation has hitherto been converted into 
a gambling table and its money and offices into prizes. | 

In the introductory chapters upon the viceroyal government and 
revolution of Mexico, and in our remarks upon the growth of par- 
ties at the close of the war of independence, we have endeavored 


MEXICAN OPINIONS — CLASSES. 157 


to exhibit fairly the existing causes of trouble at those epochs. } 
There was an apology for incapability of political self-rule when a 
bad government or a degrading despotism was suddenly removed. 
But, since then, twenty-six years have elapsed; and, in more than 
a quarter of a century, mankind is fairly entitled to demand from 
Mexico a denial of the sarcasm of her oppressive oidor Bataller 
“that the worst punishment to be inflicted upon the Mexicans is to 
allow them to govern themselves! ” 

Dark as is this picture of neighboring republicans, we should 
have been loth to paint it had not our careful studies of their 
statistics and the commentaries of their own citizens justified the 
sombre coloring. ‘For our own part we believe,’?— says Don 
Francisco Lerdo, in his Considerations upon the Social and Politi- 
cal Condition of the Mexican Republic in 1847, — “that all this 
may be explained in a few words. In Mexico there neither is nor 
can there be what is called national spirit, because there is no 
nation.”’ ® 

This, perhaps, is the key of Mexican decadence. The national 
spirit is centrifugal, if any thing can strictly be called national 
when citizen is armed against citizen, and when men in civil life 
and politicians in public. life, are constantly seeking to aggran- 
dize themselves either in wealth or power without a thought of 
loyalty to the constitution which should perpetuate and consolidate 
national unity of principle and action in spite of all their personal 
ambitions or party dominations. 

If we recur to our statistics in the third chapter of this volume 
we shall find that, out of seven millions six hundred and twenty- 
six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one inhabitants of the repub- 
lic, it is calculated that four millions three hundred thousand 
are Indians, that more than two millions are either mixed bloods 
or negroes, and only about one million white, while, of the 
whole population, not many more than seven hundred and forty 
thousand are to be regarded as either educated or at all in- 
structed! The most numerous class, the large majority of Mexi- 
cans, -— the Indians, — are not civilized. We make this assertion 
without qualification. They are tamed and have been compara- 
tively submissive ; they are not open idolators and have generally 
conformed, according to their limited understanding and instruc- 
tion, to the direction of the Catholic priesthood; but neither this 
taming nor this conformity, considered relatively to their general 
demeanor, constitute civilization either under a monarchy or a re- 


1 See vol. 1, pages 2 Lerdo, Consideraciones, &c., &e., p. 42. 
’ Pp fo) ) ’ ? 2 £ 


. 


158 INDIANS — MESTIZOS — WHITES — ARMY — CHURCH. 


public. The Indians, therefore, regarded as a political or social 
element in a democracy, are not fairly to be valued as integral con- 
stituencies of the Mexican republic. We have already delineated 
the character of this class and will not recapitulate the points of 
sluggish indifference which forbid the hope of its elevation. Less 
savage than the North American red man and hunter, the Mexican 
Indian is only dwarfed in energy and in the expression of passion, 
by the emasculating influence of the climate. In all other respects 
he resembles the tenant of our western forests and will neither will- 
ingly mingle with us, adopt our habits, nor labor for others upon a 
soil which spontaneously supplies his wants. In his passive state 
he is content with imitation; in his aroused anger he rushes 
blindly and vindictively into danger, and is willing to die rather for 
revenge than for right. Is it not folly then to ask this class to com- 
prehend the representative system? Nor can we justly expect its 
comprehension and correspondent adherence or practice from the 
unenlightened Mixed Races, especially when those races do not 
derive their origin, exclusively, from pure white stocks, but are 
formed by a medly mosaic of Indian, African, Oriental and 
Spanish. The hope of Mexico must, therefore, repose in the 
whites alone; and, on this class we might confidently rely as the 
nucleus around which future numbers and civilization would 
gather, if we found them orderly, free, united and firm in adher- 
ence to their constitution modified by the indispensable addition 
of religious liberty and the speedy as well as inflexible administra- 
tion of justice. But, in this small class, we have the most serious 
difficulties to contend with, for, without constitutional recognition, 
the officers of the army, the hierarchy, and the intriguing politicians, 
form three distinct powerful bodies who must blend in perfect 
union for mutual support, or must be content to see the country in- 
volved in civil war if they differ. 

We have already noticed the origin and continuance of the army’s 
influence, and the natural despotic tendencies of that class. It re- 
presents Force. It is, moreover, a historical fact, that the Mexican 
church does not confine itself to matters of faith, but, as the richest 
national proprietor and as the comptroller of conscience by virtue of 
the constitution, has constantly quitted the cloister to fight in the 
arena of politics. Nor was its weapon weak, for it was armed with 
Superstition. Wielding the bolts of spiritual thunder in a nation 
in which no other religion is tolerated or known; possessing the 
power of discovery by confession, and of control by penance, ex- 
communication, anathemas, and ecclesiastical interdicts ; ruling the 


DIVISIONS OF WHITE'S — WANT OF HOMOGENEOUSNESS. 159 


soul without appeal, and grasping the purse, it will be at once seen 
what a powerful element of influence such an institution must be- 
come when directed by a single head. If the masses would prey 
upon the church, it was the policy of the church to support the 
army ; if the people desired to destroy the army, it was the interest 
of the army to support a church which could control by con- 
science or bribe by money the miscalled representatives of the peo- 
ple! With force and superstition, thus welded together by in- 
terest, the representative system can expect but little favor from 
these two important divisions of the white race. 

Is there hopeful reliance, then, upon another power which 1s 
controlled by a portion of the educated whites? The Liberty of the 
Press, in Mexico has disappointed its warmest advocates. An in- 
strument which should ever be used for the enlightenment of the 
multitude has been employed only to demoralize and deceive it. 
Instead of attacking bravely all abuses of administration and all 
international prejudices, or weaknesses ; instead of holding the ex- 
ecutive departments: to strict accountability before the chambers 
and the people; instead of displaying frankly the vital interests 
and materials of social reorganization, and thus contributing to the 
common prosperity and peace of the country, the periodical press 
of Mexico, with few honorable exceptions, has fostered the meanest 
passions and hatreds of the ignorant masses and has betrayed pub- 
lic opinion by trafficking with or truckling to the men or the classes 
who live by public abuses and disorder.? Instead of checking and 
thwarting the interference of the church in civil affairs, it has stood 
mute or appalled before the ecclesiastical power. If there is no re- 
liance, therefore, on the press, what available trust may be reposed 
in the pure, civil patriots, men of letters, professional characters, 
merchants and proprietors? The slender numbers of this class, 
compared with the army, church, Empleados or government em- 
ployées, and intriguing civilians connected either with the state in 
its various departments of finance, or with the press, at once de- 
prive it of equality in influence. In all the turns of fortune in 
Mexico, these men have, hitherto, never been able to command the 
country for any length of time so as to give a permanent beneficial 
direction to public affairs, and we may, therefore, readily agree with 
Lerdo in believing that his country possesses no elements of na- 
tionality. He might have gone further in his analysis, and declared 

1 Lerdo, Consideraciones, p. 46, 47. 


* Lerdo 43.—Cuevas’s memoir of 1849, as Mexican Minister of Foreign and 
Domestic relations, p. 29 of American translation. 


160 WANT OF NATIONALITY AND OF A PEOPLE 


that there was no nationality because there was no PEopie; for 
who will dignify with that republican name such discordant and 
heterogeneous materials of races, characters, politics and purposes. 
A Prope is not a mere aggregation of human beings. A nation, 
in the true sense of nationality, is only a great family, for whose 
strength and power it is necessary that all its individual members 
should be intimately united by the bonds of interest, sympathy and 
affection. Such a nation may form a government, but it is difficult 
for a government to form such a nation. And this was the peculiarly 
fortunate position of our North American states at the period of 
Independence, for we had no political and social revolution to 
effect. Our people and our government grew up together. At the 
close of the war the United States were poor. The military men 
had enjoyed no revenue from their services but personal honor. 
They were badly fed, paid and clothed. ‘There was no rich, ready 
made prize to be seized by ambitious or avaricious men in the 
gorged treasury of a nation. All were essentially equal because all 
were equally forced to work for livelihood. There was no recog- 
nized class in government or society. We were all of one blood, 
and did not fall into the error of amalgamation with Indians and 
negroes. We were controlled by reason and not governed by pas- 
sions or instincts. We had nothing but liberty and space; soil and 
freedom. Our soldiers were rewarded with land; but that land 
was in the wilderness and exacted toil to make it productive; and 
thus, compulsory industry diverted the minds of our political 
founders from those ambitious enterprises, which by the aid of the 
military have so long degraded Mexico. Conquest and rapid 
Fruition, — was the maxim of Spain; Occupation and Develop- 
ment, — the policy of England. The eager Iberian was prompt 
and headlong in the adventurous life of discovery. The cautious 
Anglo Saxon followed in his steps, ready to glean and replant the 
fields that had been hardly reaped of their virgin harvests. 


We have endeavored to analyze candidly the condition of the 
Mexican republic, and, in performing the disagreeable task we have 
been guided not only by our own personal observations in the 
country, but by the argumentative criticisms of native writers 
Having ascertained the disease it is our duty to seek the remedy 
The obvious policy of Mexico, under existing circumstances, is te 
exhibit a firm, constitutional, orderly, peaceful aspect, which, to- 
gether with her manifold allurements of soil, climate, and geogra- 
phical situation, will gradually attract to her shores the eager mul- 


REMEDIES —EMIGRATI '‘N — RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 161 


titudes who are secking a new home in America. Emigration is 
the overflowing of a bitter cup.. Men do not ordinarily leave the 
land of their birth, the home of their infancy, their parents, friends 
and companions, for the untried hazards of a land in which there is 
no community of laws, habits, and language, unless poverty and bad 
government force them into the wilderness. They depart to better 
their lot. They must have the assurance, therefore, of their rights 
in property and personal liberty guarantied by stable laws promptly 
administered by incorruptible judges. Such meritorious emigrants 
will not p@pulate Mexico unless she demonstrates her capacity for 
order and security ; and, without these accessions, we have shown 
that Mexico never will, as she does not now, possess a republican 
PropLe. She must cultivate the civil idea; she must abandon her 
military parade; she must discard her habitual bombast and grand- 
iloguence; she must banish the despots who have debauched and 
plundered her; she must reform her social life and learn to believe 
that there are other pleasures worthy the notice of men_ besides 
gambling, bull baiting and cock fighting; and, above all, she must 
establish religious liberty. It is an absurd idea that nationality 
can be preserved by enforcing Catholicity by virtue of the consti- 
tution. The Roman church must consent to share this earth, — 
the patrimony of mankind, — with other believers and spiritual la- 
borers. It cannot monopolize the soil, even if it can control the 
faith. ‘The day of monoply is gone,—that of individuality has 
come, and there can be no good government that is not founded on 
tolerant Christianity, which is the creed of Love, the enemy of 
Force, the founder of true Democracy.! 

When an orderly and firm government shall have been estab- 
lished, Mexico will be refreshed continually by the energizing blood 
of a hardy, industrious and enterprising white race from beyond the 
sea. Germany will send her sons and daughters; Ireland, France, 
England, Italy and Spain will contribute theirs. The various 
nations, mingling slowly by marriage with the white Mexicans, 
will amalgamate and neutralize each other into homogeneous na- 
tionality. Mexico may thus gradually congregate a PEOPLE. 
The language of the country will, in all likelihood, be preserved; 


1Tt will scarcely be credited, but such is nevertheless the fact, that it was once 
seriously contemplated in Mexico to deny the right of sepulture to all strangers 
who were not Catholics, and that the point was only overruled by an ingenious lib- 
eralist, who contended that it was certainly healthier for the living Catholics that 
the dead heretic should rot beneath the ground, than taint the atmosphere by decay- 
ing above it! The priesis have constantly and violently opposed marriages between 
Mexicans and foreigners, unless they were Catholics. 


U 


162 POLITICAL ORDER — LABOR. 


for the white natives who now speak Spanish will of course form, 
for many years, the bulk of the population, and when they die, 
their offspring and the offspring of the emigrants will know but one 
tongue. There will thus be no violent extirpation of races; but a 
slow and genial modification. Modern inventions, arts, tastes, 
science, emulation, new forms of thought, new modes of develop- 
ment, will be introduced and implanted by these emigrants. The 
million of white men, and the two millions of mestizos, will become 
more prosperous under the increased trade and industry of the 
nation. A good government will be ensured, for the Hardy emi- 
grants fly from the political oppression and poverty of the old world 
to enjoy peaceful liberty in this. 

There is nothing in this scheme of progress to which a good 
man or a republican can object, and if Mexico is sincere in her 
professions of democracy, and not merely anxious to preserve intact 
the fragments of a ruined Spanish colony, without a people and 
without nationality, she- will imitate the example of the United 
States and welcome to her vallies and mountains all who are will- 
ing to approach her in the name of order, labor, and liberty. But 
if she stubbornly adheres to her stupid self-seclusion, and bars the 
portals of her splendid empire with the revolutionary impediments 
that are annually scattered over the republic, she will break the 
beautiful promise given to humanity in the success of her revolution ; 


‘‘ Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, unfinished, 
As if a morning in June with all its music and sunshine, 
Suddenly paused in the sky, and fading slowly descended 
Into the east again, from whence it late had arisen! ” 
LonereLLow’s EVANGELINE. 


BOO KY. 


THE MEXICAN STATES AND TERRITORIES: 
THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, CITIES, TOWNS, 
PRODUCTIONS, MINES, GENERAL CHARACTER- 


ISTICS, ANTIQUITIES, Erc. 


BOO Kv: 


THE MEXICAN STATES AND TERRITORIES; 


THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, CITIES, TOWNS, PRODUCTIONS, 
MINES, GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS, ANTIQUITIES, ETC. 


CoA Bei ER. ok. 


DIVISION OF MEXICO INTO STATES—EASTERN, WESTERN, INTERIOR. 
YUCATAN — BOUNDARIES, DEPARTMENTS, POPULATION, DISTRICTS, 
TOWNS, PARISHES, PRODUCTIONS, PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ISLANDS, HAR- 
BORS. — CHIAPAS — BOUNDARIES, PRODUCTS, DEPARTMENTS, TOWNS, 
RIVERS, POPULATION—-REMAINS IN YUCATAN AND CHIAPAS.—DIS- 
COVERIES OF STEPHENS, CATHERWOOD, NORMAN, ETC.— PALENQUE 
— UXMAL—YUCATAN CALENDAR.— YUCATAN, CHIAPAN, MECHOACAN, 
NICARAGUA AND MEXICAN MONTHS.—YUCATESE AND CHIAPAN CY- 
CLE.—YUCATESE AND MEXICAN SOLAR YEAR— DIFFERENCES. — 
YUCATESE MONTHS.—TABASCO— BOUNDARIES, RIVERS, LAGUNE, 
INHABITANTS, PRODUCTIONS, TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 


In treating this branch of our subject we have followed the order 
adopted by Muhlenpfordt in his ‘Republik Mejico,” and acknow- 
ledge the important assistance we have derived from the careful, 
minute and laborious personal researches made by that industrious 
German author relative to the geography of Mexico. Since the 
publication of his volumes, in which he had been greatly aided by 
the previous works of Humboldt, Ward, Burkhardt and other ex- 
plorers during the present century, the Mexican government has 
organized a Statistical Commission, whose investigations have been 
published in a series of Bulletins, and to these we are indebted for 
recent authentic information about some of the most interesting por- 
tions of Mexico. The northern regions, meanwhile, have been 
illustrated by the explorations of Frémont, Abert, Emory, Wislize- 
nius, Cooke, Simpson, and other officers of the American Govern- 
ment; but as most of the territory examined by them has become 
the property of the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe, their 
labors are not of importance in describing the Republic of Mexico 
as at present bounded. In the last Book of this work, however, 
which we have devoted to the consideration of California and New 
Mexico, we shall recur to those brave and scientific explorers of a 
remote region, so recently a wilderness, but which their labors, and 


766 EASTERN — WESTERN —-INTERIOR— YUCATAN. 


the combined fortune of war and mineral wealth have subdued for 
the benefit of mankind. 

In accordance with the plan proposed in the separate considera- 
tion of the several States and Territories of Mexico, we shall divide 
them into three groups: —those on the eastern or Gulf coast; those 
on the western or Pacific coast, and those in the interior. 


I.—EasTERn on GuuFr Coast. 


The State of Yucatan. The State of Vera Cruz. 
‘¢ State of Chiapas. ‘¢ State of Tamaulipas. 
<¢ State of Tabasco. 


IIl.—WesTERN oR PaciFric.Coast. 


Lhe State of Oajaca. The State of Jalisco. 
‘¢ State of Puebla. ‘© Territory of Colima. 
‘¢ Territory of Tlascala. ‘¢ State of Sinaloa. 


‘«¢ State of Mexicoand Federal ‘‘ State of Sonora. 


District. ‘¢ State of Guerrero. 
The State of Michoacan. ‘¢ Territory of L. California. 
lIL.—I xt Ee R102. 
The State of Queretaro. The State of New Leon. 
“¢ State of Guanajuato. ‘¢ State of Coahuila. 
‘¢ State of Zacatecas. ‘¢ State of Durango. 
«¢ State of San Luis Potosi. “¢ State of Chihuahua. 


THE STATE OF YUCATAN, 


The State of Yucatan, sometimes known by the name of Merida 
or Campeché, occupies the greater portion of the peninsula which 
bounds the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico. its eastern side 
is washed by the Caribbean Sea, and touched by the settlements at 
Balize; on the south it is bounded by Guatemala; on the west by 
the Gulf of Mexico and the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, from 
which it is separated by the river Paicutun that falls into the Lag- 
nua de Terminos. Its northern coast extends from Cape Catoché 
to the Punta de Piedras, about eighty-six leagues; and the whole 
area of the State is computed at 3,823 square leagues. 

Yucatan possesses very few streams and none of importance that 
are known or explored. On the west of the peninsula, debouching 
into the Gulf of Mexico, there are the rivers or rivulets of Escatalto, 
Chen, Champoton;—the San Francisco falls into the Bay of Cam- 
peché; in the north there are the Silan, the Cedros, and the Conil; 
while the streams of Bolina, the Rio Nuevo, the Bacalar, the As- 


BOUNDARIES — DEPARTMENTS — POPULATION. 167 


cension, and the Honda or Rio Grande pour into the Caribbean Sea. 
In 1841 the population of the State is stated in a census, taken by 
order of the government, as follows: 


Departments. Men. Women. Total. 
Merida, . 48,606 58,663 107,269 
Izamal, . ‘keer R eae OO 37,933 70,848 
Ree Pe a dae any in OED Dh 64,697 122,824 
Valladolid..." .. 24" ., 495303 46,926 325219 
Campectter  . 32.7) 39,017 40,639 79,656 

Mota te ov 2. 224.018 248,858 472,876 


This census, although it professes to be accurate, may neverthe- 
less be incomplete, inasmuch as the inhabitants of Yucatan, dread- 
ing new contributions and detesting military service, endeavor to 
reduce as much as possible the number of their families in the lists 
prepared for government. Besides this, it does not appear to com- 
prehend all the departments according to Muhlenpfordt, who divides 
the State into fifteen departments.1. The population has been esti- 
mated by some careful writers, acquainted with the people and the 
country, at 525,000 souls; in our table of population on page 42 of 
this volume, we have on’ good authority stated the number to be, 
in 1842, 508,948, while others have increased the number to 600,- 
000 and even to 630,000, which amount is assigned to Yucatan by 
a census in 1833! The last mentioned number will give about 165 
individuals to each square league. ® 


The character and quality of the productions of Yucatan may be 
estimated by the following statistical table, which has been transla- 
ted and published by Mr. Stephens in the first volume of his Inci- 
dents of Travel in that State. 


1 Bacalar, Campeché, Ichmul or Izamal, Isla de Carmen, Jequetchacan, Junoma, 
Lerma, Mama, Merida, Oxhuscab, Seyba, Playa, Sotula, Tizizimin, and Valladolid. 
These are the names of the Departments given by Mihlenpfordt: the first table is 
taken from Stephens. 

? Our table of population on page 43 of this volume, adds about 10 per cent. to this 
number to give the population estimated in 1850. 


PRODUCTIONS. 


TOWNS— PARISHES 


DISTRICTS 


168 


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PRINCIPAL TOWNS — ISLANDS — HARBORS. 169 


The principal towns of Yucatan, are, Ist: the capital, Meripa, 
in the northern part of the state, about ten leagues from the coast, 
containing a population of near 15,000 individuals. Its port is 
the small haven of Sisal, which is in reality nothing but a bleak 
roadstead, protected by a fort and a sand bank. 

2nd: San Francisco pE Campecut, with a population of 
about 9,000 ;—a port which is considered by navigators one of 
the best in the state, yet is by no means, a secure or comfortable 
anchorage. 

38rd: Vauuapouip, the chief town of the district of that name, 
with near 4,000 inhabitants. 

Ath: San Felipé de Bacalar, or Salamanca; a town and military 
post ‘in the district of that name, containing a garrison and about 
one hundred and twenty houses. 

Besides these, there are the villages of Xampolan, Jequetchacan, 
Lerma, Champoton, between the rivers Campeché and Champoton 
on the west coast, and Silan, Santa Clara, Vigia del rio and Cha- 
boana, on the north coast. In the interior there are many Indian 
villages. 

The Island of Cozumel on the east coast of Yucatan— which was 
the first land discovered by the Spaniards in their voyage to Mexi- 
co,—is now almost uninhabited, and contains some ancient re- 
mains, which are probably the ruins of the splendid structures that 
attracted the attention of the adventurers, and satisfied them they 
had reached a land which was sufficiently civilized to be worthy 
their exploration and plunder. 

It has generally been supposed that Yucatan affords no safe har- 
bors or anchorages, which would either tempt commercial enterprise 
to her shores, or afford vessels of war sufficient protection so as to 
render the peninsula valuable ina military point of view. Yet it 
seems from an official copy of a recent British survey of the coast of 
Yucatan, which is to be found in the office of our Coast Survey in 
Washington, that there is a fine harbor for vessels of any size un- 
der the island of Mugeres, the easternmost point of Yucatan, where 
they may ride at anchor in safety, protected from winds in every 
direction. ‘The harbors of Ascension and Espiritu Bay, are repre- 
sented as good ; the latter being capable of holding a fleet of the 
heaviest kind of English frigates and war steamers. ‘There is 
good anchorage, moreover, off the north-east point of the island of 
Cozumel.! 


1 See Senater Cass’ speech, on the proposed occupation of Yucatan, in the Senate, 
May 10th, 1848, p. 7. 
vi 


170 CHIAPAS, ROUNDARIES, PRODUCTS, DEPARTMENTS, ETC. 


THE STATE OF CHIAPAS. 


This state has been very inadequately examined. It is bounded 
north by Tabasco; south and south-west by the Republic of Central 
America, or Guatemala; west by the state of Vera Cruz and by a 
small part of Oajaca; and on the east partly by Yucatan and partly 
by Guatemala. Until the year 1833 the territory comprised in this 
division belonged to Guatemala, when it jomed the Mexican con- 
federacy. Comprehending the northern declivities of the Cordil- 
leras and table lands of Central America, Chiapas is, throughout a 
considerable part of its territory, cut up into successions of ridges 
and valleys, which are rich in many of the finest tropical productions. 
Corn, cacao, sugar and garden vegetables are produced readily. To- 
bacco of good quality grows in the district of Sandoval, and in the 
neighborhood of Oajaca. In the district of Tonala, a small quan- 
tity of indigo of an extraordinarily fine quality is cultivated; and 
here, also, pepper and the maguey plant are yielded plentifully. 
Ananas, sapotes, bananas, figs, apricots and various similar fruits 
abound in Chiapas, while in its forests, oaks, cedar, mahogany, 
ebony, and other valuable woods are found in considerable quanti- 
ties. But the greater part of this fruitful state is still an unknown 
waste, which the labors of other races must fully explore and develop. 

Chiapas is divided into four departments and nine districts, 
which, together, possess 92 parishes. 

Ist: The Department of the Centre, with 12 parishes, besides 
the capital of Ciudad-Real, or San Cristoval de los Llanos and the 
the town of Chamila. 

2nd: The Department of the South, with 10 parishes, in the dis- 
trict of Llanos, 11 in Ocozingo, and 17 in Tuxtla. 

3rd: The Department of the West, with the district of Ystoco- 
mitan, containing 17 parishes ; Tonala, 3 parishes; and Palenque, 
A parishes. 

Ath: The Department of the North, with the districts of Tila, 
containing 6 parishes, and Simojoval, 12 parishes. 

The chief towns are, Crupap-REAL, or SAN CRISTOVAL DE Los 
Luanos ; a fine town with about 6,000 inhabitants, possessing a 
cathedral church, four convents for monks, and one for nuns, two 
chapels, and a hospital. ‘The first bishop of Chiapas, who erected 
the see of that name in 1538, was the renowned Bartoloméo de las 
Casas, whose fame is so intimately connected with the early history 
of the country, by his constant and merciful interference in behalf 
of the Indians. 


RIVERS, POPULATION, REMAINS IN YUCATAN AND CHIAPAS. 171 . 


The other important towns are San Juan Chamila, containing 
4,000 inhabitants; San Bartoloméo de los Llanos, whose 7,000 
people are chiefly engaged in the cultivation of cotton, sugar, to- 
bacco and corn; San Domingo Comitlan; San Jacinto Ocozingo, 
with 3,000 inhabitants who devote themselves to the care of cattle, 
and cultivate some cacao and corn; Tuxtla, with 5,000 inhabitants 
who trade in tobacco and cacao; San Domingo Sinacantan, on the 
borders of Tabasco in the territory of the Zoques, with 2,500 in- 
habitants who employ themselves in the culture of silk, of which 
they weave shawls and other similar fabrics, which are esteemed of 
a good merchantable quality, and are used in the country or adjacent 
states; Chiapa de los Indios; Tecpatlan; Ostoacan ; Teopixca ; 
Acapala; Capanabastla; Izcuintenango; San Fernando Guada- 
lupe ; and Simojovel. 

Chiapas is represented to be rich in rivers which rise chiefly in 
the highlands towards the state of Tabasco and debouche into the 
Mexican Gulf. The Tabasco river or the Rio de Grijalva; the 
Usumasinta, the Chicsoi or the Santa Isabella; — the Machaquita, 
San Pedro, Dolores, Yalchitan, Chacamas, Zeldales, Yeixhihujat, 
Chatlan, and some others; the Pacaitin or Paicutun; the laguna 
de Chiapa; some mineral waters; and a valuable salt spring in 
the vicinity of San Mateo, enrich various portions of this fertile 
state, whose climate, especially in its higher regions, is said to be 
delicious and uniform. The number of the population of this state 
is not officially known. In 1831, a census made by order of the 
governor Ignacio Gutierrez, which however, did not include fifteen 
parishes, gave 118,775 inhabitants for the rest of the state. An 
estimate in a Mexican calendar of 1833 represents the number to 
be about 96,000, while the government calculation for a basis of 
representation in Congress in 1842, gives it 141,206, to which about 
10 per cent. should be added to give the proximate population in 
1850. The Indian tribes of the Zoques, Cendales or Zeldales, 
Teochiapanécos and Mames are still very numerous, and, of course, 
form the greater part of the population. 


AncIENT REMAINS IN YUCATAN AND CHIAPAS. 


The physical description of these two States, presented in the 
preceding pages, will have satisfied the reader that they possess a 
prolific soil and an agreeable climate which would probably attract 
a large population had they been properly explored and developed 
by an energetic race. We are sustained in this belief by the fact, 


- 172 PpISCOVERIES OF STEPHENS, CATHERWOOD, NORMAN, ETC. 


that in these States travellers have found the most remarkable re- 
mains of an advanced ancient civilization hitherto discovered on 
our continent. What has existed may exist again under the be- 
nignant influence of modern progress; nor is it improbable that as 
human interests direct the attention of maritime or emigrating na- 
tions towards the central portions of the western continent, Yucatan 
and Chiapas may again become the seat of a population even larger 
than that which thronged it during the palmy days anterior to the 
Spanish conquest. 

Since the year 1840 three important works have been published 
in this country relative to these ancient remains of towns, temples, 
cities, idols and monuments. ‘Two of these are due to the pen and 
pencil of Mr. John L. Stephens and Mr. Catherwood, while the 
other and slighter production is the result of a hasty visit paid to 
Yucatan by Mr. B. M. Norman. ‘These three publications, plenti- 
fully illustrated by accurate engravings of the ruins and remains, 
have been so widely disseminated throughout Europe and America 
that readers are already familiar with them. In the “long, irregular 
and devious route’? pursued by Stephens and Catherwood, they 
‘‘discovered the crumbling remains of fifty-four ancient cities, most 
of them but a short distance apart, though, from the great change 
that has taken place in the country, and the breaking up of the old 
roads, having no direct communication with each other. With but 
few exceptions, all were lost, buried and unknown, never before 
visited by a stranger, and some of them, perhaps, never looked upon 
by the eyes of a white man.” Leaving Guatemala, the travellers 
encountered, in Chiapas, remarkable remains at Ocozingo and Pa- 
lenque; and passing thence into Yucatan, in their second journey 
to those central regions, they explored and described the architec- 
tural and monumental relics at Maxcanu, Uxmal, Sacbey, Xampon, 
Sanacte, Chunhuhu, Labpahk, Iturbide, Mayapan, San Francisco, 
Ticul, Nochacab, Xoch, Kabah, Sabatsche, Labna, Kenick, Izamal, 
Saccacal, Tekax, Akil, Mani, Macoba, Becanchen, Peto, Chichen, 
in the interior; and at ‘Tuloom, Tancar, and in the Island of Cozu- 
mel on the eastern coast. 

The simple catalogue of these names, indicating the sites of an- 
cient civilization in the midst of what is at present almost an unex- 
plored wilderness and covering so wide a field of observation, will 
satisfy the reader that it is impossible to condense a satisfactory re- 
view of these architectural remains within the space that we are 
enabled to appropriate to antiquarian researches. ‘The ruins of Pa 
lenque in Chiapas, and of Uxmal and Chichen in Yucatan, are, 


PALENQUE — UXMAL— YUCATAN CALENDAR. 173 


perhaps, the most wonderful of all that have been explored hitherto 
in this lonely region; and, while we regret that our duty to the 
living present will not permit us to dwell longer on the curious past, 
we shall, nevertheless pause, occasionally, as we pass through the 
Mexican States, to notice those remains which have either been 
visited by us personally, or are not described in books as accessible 
to all classes of enquirers and students as those of Messrs. Stephens, 
Catherwood and Norman. Mr. Stephens believes, after full inves- 
tigation, that these towns and cities were occupied by the original 
builders and their descendants at the period of the Spanish con- 
quest, and our own opinion entirely coincides with his reasoning 
* and judgment. Those who desire a complete and conclusive illus- 
tration of this branch of the subject will find an excellent argument 
thereon in both of his publications. | 

In the first volume of this work we have given an account of the 
Mexican or Aztec Calendar; and the proximate identity of the Yu- 
catese or Mayan and Aztec Calendar led Mr. Stephens to the con- 
clusion that both nations had a common origin. This argument is 
also important in considering the period of the occupation of the 
Chiapan and Yucatese edifices, inasmuch as we know that the Az- 
tecs of Montezuma’s period used the Calendar which we have 
already illustrated and described. 


YucaTAN CALENDAR. 


‘Our knowledge of the Yucatan Calendar,” says Mr. Gallatin, ? 
‘cis derived exclusively from the communications made by Don J. P. 
Perez to Mr. John L. Stephens, and inserted in the appendix to the 

,first volume of this gentleman’s Travels in Yucatan. It is substan- 
tially the same with that of the Mexicans, though differing in some 
important particulars. 

“The inhabitants of Yucatan had, like the Mexicans, the two 
distinct modes of computing time, by months of twenty days, and 
by periods of thirteen days. They also distinguished the days of 
the year by a combination of those two series, precisely similar to 
that of the Mexicans. And their year likewise consisted of 365 
days, viz., of eighteen months of twenty days each, to which they 
added five supplementary days; and also of a corresponding series 
of twenty-eight periods of thirteen days each, and one day over. 


1 See Stephens’s Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, 
vol. 2, chapter xxvi; and his Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. 2, page 444. 


? Transactions American Ethnological Society, vol. 1, page 104, and Stephens’s 
Yucatan, vol. 1, page 434. 


“ 


174 


YUCATESE, CHIAPAN, MECHOACAN, NICARAGUA AND 


The following table exhibits the names of the twenty days of the 
Yucatan month, with their signification, as far as it has been ascer- 
tained by Don J. P. Perez; and also the days of the Chiapa month 
as given by Boturini; and which, from the similarity of the names 
of several of the days, appears to have been in its origin nearly 
identical with that of Yucatan. 


i ree To ect kh rm ce eT 


YucaTan. Cuiapa.|Mecuoacan| Nicaragua. Mexican. | 

1 KAN yellow Ghanan |Inopon 9 Cipat Cipactli 
2 Chicchan small Abagh {Inic Ebi 10 Acat Ehecatl | ° 
3 Quimi death Tox Inettuni 11 Cali Calli 
4 Manik — wind ceasing |Moxic_ |Inbeari 12 Quespalcoat |Cuetzpalin | 
5 Lamat Lamsart |Inethaati {13 Migiste Cohuatl | 
6 Mutuc — union? Mulu  |INBANI 14 Macat Miquiztli | 
7 Oc palm of hand? |Elab Inxichari |15.Toste Mazatl | 
8 Chuen board Batz Tnchini 16 At Tochtli 
9 Eb ladder Enob {In Rini 17 Izquindi Atl | 

10 Be-en Br-en_ [In Pari 18 Ocomat Itzeuintli 

11 HIX rough Hix INCHON 19 Malinal Ozomatli 

12 Men amechanic |Tziquin |Inthahui [20 Acato Malinalli 

13 Quib wax Chabin |Intzini 1 Agat Acatl 

14 Caban Chic In Tzoniabi | 2 Ocelot Ocelotl 

15 Eznab Cuinax |In Tizimbi | 3 Oat Quauhtli 

16 Ca-vac Cahogh |InrHrHur 4 Cozgacoatz pL IC a 

17 Ajau period of years|Aghual [Inixotzini | 5 Olin 

18 Imix maize? Mox Inichini 6 ‘Topecat Tegal 

19 Yk wind Yeh Ini Abi 7 Quiauvit Quiahuitl 

20 Akbal Voran |Intaniri 8 Sochit Xochitl 


‘The Calendar of the inhabitants of the independent kingdom of 
Mechoacan, who spoke the Tarasca language, appears to have been 
similar to that of the Mexicans; and the names of the days of their 
month as stated by Veytia, are inserted in the table. The namese 
of the days of an ancient Mexican, or rather Toltec tribe, found in 
the province of Nicaragua, have also been inserted. This, as far 
as we know, is the extreme southeastern limit of the Mexican Ca- 
lendar on the Pacific Ocean. That limit on the Atlantic or Gulf of 
Mexico may be traced as far as the islands opposite Cape Honduras 
(Herrera); beyond which the shores are still inhabited by the un- 
civilized Musquito Indians. 


‘The cycle of fifty-two years was also adopted in Yucatan, and 
the arrangement of the years was precisely the same as in that of 
Mexico, substituting only the names Khan, Muluc, Hix and Ca-uac, 
for Tochtli, Acatl, Tecpatl and Calli, as appears in the following 
table : 


MEXICAN MONTHS—YUCATESE AND CHIAPAN CYCLE. 175 


| YUCATAN CYCLE OF 52 YEARS. 


| 
| | 
Ist year. | 14th year. | 27th year. | 40th year. | 
‘Th | 
1 | Khan Muluc Hix Ca-uac The Chiapan Cycle is also | 
2 | Muluc Hix Ca-uac Khan 
3;| Hix Ca-uac Khan Muluc similar, substituting for the 
4 | Ca-uac Khan Muluo Hix 
5 | Khan Muluc - | Hix Ca-uac names Khan, Muluc, Hix, 
6 | Muluc Hix Ca-uac Khan 
i | telex Ca-uac Khan Muluc Ca-uac, those of Votan, 
8 | Ca-uac Khan Muluc Hix 
9 | Kahn Muluc Hix Ca-uac Lembat, Be-en, Chinax. | 
10 | Muluc Hix Ca-uac Khan 
1A) ix Ca-uac Khan Muluc 
12 | Ca-uac Khan Muluc Hix 
13 | Kahn Muluc Hix Ca-uac | 


‘‘But there was an essential difference respecting the series of 
the names and numerical characters of the days, as will appear by 
the following table, which shows the termination of the first year of 
the cycle, and the beginning of the next ensuing years. 


Year 1 Khan Ist day of the year 1 Khan 
Ist of the Cycle Ist supplementary day 10 do. 
2d do. 11 Chiccan 
3d do. 12 Kimi 
Ath do. 13 Manic 
5th do. 1 Lamat 
Year 2 Muluc Ist day of the year 2 Muluc 
zd of the Cycle Ist supplementary day 11 Muluc 
Last do. 2 Be-en 
Year 3 Hix Ist day of the year 3 Hix 
3d of the Cycle Ist supplementary day 12 do. 
Last do. 3 Edznab 
Year 4 Ca-uac 1st day of the year 4 Ca-uac 
4th of the Cycle 1st supplementary day HS do: 
Last do. 4 Akbal 
Year 5 Khan Ist day of the year 5 Khan 
dth of the Cycle Ist supplementary day 1 do. 
Last do. 5 Lamat 


“Don J. P. Perez positively states, that the fundamental rule is 
never to interrupt either of the series of names or of days. Thus, 
inasmuch as the last supplementary day of the first year of the cycle 
(1 Khan) is 1 Lamat; and as, in the order of the days of the month, 


176, YUCATESE AND MEXICAN SOLAR YEAR— DIFFERENCES, 


the day called ‘“‘Muluc”’ immediately follows the day Lamat; the 
ensuing year 2 Muluc commences with the day 2 Muluc, in the 
Same manner as the year 1 Khan commences with the day 1 Khan. 
It is the same with the other years; so that the first day of every 
year has the same name and numerical character as the year itself. 

“Don J. P. Perez acknowledges that amongst the few mutilated 
remains of Indian manuscripts or paintings, he has not been able to 
discover any trace of an intercalation, either of one day every four 
years, or of thirteen days at the end of the cycle, though he pre- 
sumes that they had indubitably either the one or the other. 

‘The Yucatan cycle of fifty-two years, differed in no other re- 
spect from that of the Mexicans. The combination of the two series 
of twenty and thirteen days is used in the same manner in both 
calendars for the purpose of distinguishing the days of the year. 

‘The Yucatecs differed materially from the Mexicans with regard 
to the time of the solar year, when their year began. Don J. P. 
Perez informs us, that the first day of the Yucatan year correspond- 
ed with the sixteenth day of July; and that this was the day of the 
transit of the sun by the zenith of a place which he does not men- 
tion. But he adds that, for want of proper instruments, the Indians 
had made a mistake of forty-eight hours. In point of fact, it is in 
the latitude of about twenty-one degrees and a half that the transit 
of the sun by the zenith occurs on the 16th of July; and Yucatan 
lies between the latitudes of about eighteen degrees and a half and 
twenty-one degrees and a half. ‘To commence the year on the day 
of the transit of the sun by the zenith, is attended with the great 
inconvenience, that this commencement must vary from place to 
place, according to their respective latitudes. As Don J. Pio Perez 
counts every year as having 365 days, and without regard to the 
omitted bissextile days, it is clear that the day in the Yucatan ca- 
lendar, on which the transit of the sun by the zenith of any one 
place occurs, would vary twenty days, or a whole Indian month, m 
the course of eighty years. This would create such confusion that, 
if it be a well ascertained fact, that the Yucatan year began on the 
zenith day, this renders it highly probable that the calendar was, 
like that of the Mexicans, corrected by an intercalation of thirteen 
days at the end of the cycle. 


‘‘The names of the eighteen months of the Yucatecos, together 
with such interpretations as Don Pio Perez has given us, their order 
and their correspondence with our year, new style, appear in the 
following table: 


YUCATESE MONTHS. VF 


TABLE OF YUCATESE MONTHS. 


1 Pop, Poop Mat of Reeds | begins on 16th July, N.S. 
2 Uo Frog is 5 August 

3 Zip Tree a 20. 

4 Zodz Bat e 14 September 

5 Zec ue 4 October 

6 Xul End eee a akc 

7 Dzeyaxkin Summer : 13 November 

§ Mol To unite haere 3 December 

9 Chen A Well ik 23 a 

10 Yax First sf 12 January 
11 Zac White i 1 February 
12 Quej Deer ie 21 i 
13 Mac - | Lid, cover af 13 March 
14 Kankin Yellow Sun i 2 April 
15 Moan i. Pad BG 
16 Pax Musical instrument a 12 May 
17 Kayab Song o 1 June 

18 Cumku Noise Kf Cima 

§ Uayebhaab | Bed of year the 5 supplementary days 
Xma kaba kit} Days without name from 11th to 15th July 


‘cine Mexifans counted only by cycles; they désignated the ter- 
mination of a cycle by a hieroglyphic representing a bundle of reeds 
tied up; and they sometimes designated, by an equal number of 
small circles, the number of cycles which had elapsed, since the be- 
ginning of their era corresponding with the year 1091. But the 
Yucatecos, besides their cycle of 52 years, had another, containing 
thirteen periods of twenty or twenty-four years each. These last 
mentioned periods were called Ajau or Ahau.” 


YUCATESE 1)0L. 


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TABASCO — BOUNDARIES — RIVERS — LAGUNE. 181 


THE STATE ,.OF  TABASCO. 


This State, one of the smallest of the confederacy, was, previous 
to the revolution, a province of the Intendency of Vera Cruz. It 
bounds eastwardly on the State of Yucatan; south on Chiapas and 
Oajaca; west on Vera Cruz, and northwardly on the Gulf of Mexico. 
Nearly the whole of Tabasco slopes gradually towards the sea, and is 
so extremely flat that it is often subject to inundations, and the com- 
munication from village to village and parish to parish cut off alto- 
gether, or only practicable in canoes. The State is consequently 
full of streams, though they are generally short and shallow, whilst 
their mouths are obstructed by bars and flats, The most remark- 
able of these streams are—the Pacaitun, or as it is sometimes called, 
Rio de Banderas; the Usumasinta which also passes through Chia- 
pas; the Tabasco; the Chiltepec; Dos Bocas; Capilco; Rio de 
Santa Anna; Tonala or Toneladas; ‘Tancochapa or San Antonio ; 
Uspanapan and the Guachapa or Rio del Paso. 

On the eastern boundary of Tabasco lies the Laguna de Terminos, 
which is fifteen leagues long and ten broad. In this inland sea are 
locked the beautiful islands of Laguna, Carmen, and Puerto Real; 
and, in the two passes by which the sea is reached from this lagune, 
twelve to thirteen feet of water are found in the larger, while but five 
and a half feetareobtainedinthesmaller, or pass of Puerto Real. 

The climate of this State is excessively hot along the immediate 
coast of the gulf; nor is it very sensibly changed as the interior is 
reached, in consequence of the extreme flatness of the soil, During 
the prevalence of the northers the harbors are exceedingly insecure ; 
but these violent storms somewhat temper the heat and render the 
towns less sickly. © 


Tabasco is divided into three departments with nine parishes: 

Ist. The Department of Villa Hermosa with the districts of Villa 
Hermosa, Usumasinta, and Nacayuca. 2d, The Department of the 
Sierra with the districts of Teapa, Tacotalpa and Jalapa. 3d. The 
Department of Chontalpa with the districts of Macuspana, Cundua- 
can and Jalpa. 

These are subdivided into 49 parishes; (23 of which are in the 
Department of Villa Hermosa, 10 in la Sierra, and 16 in Chontalpa;) 
besides these there are 543 haciendas and ranchos, or estates and 
farms; and, throughout the whole State there are 63 churches. 
The mass of inhabitants in Tabasco, as elsewhere in these southern 


182 INHABITANTS —PRODUCTIONS—TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 


states, is formed of Indians: and of the 70,000 people who are esti- 
mated to compose the population, it 1s probable that the majority is 
formed of the Mijes, Zoques and Cendales. 

Cacao, coffee, pepper, sugar, tamarinds, arrow-root, palmetto and 
some tobacco are cultivated; while indigo and vainilla grow wild 
in the forests among groves of oaks, cedars, mahogany and iron- 
wood. ‘The extensive wildernesses of Tabasco are filled with game 
and wild beasts, and the streams are full of excellent fish. Bees 
abound in the depths of the forests and yield abundant supplies of 
wild honey and wax. 

The capital of Tabasco is Villa Hermosa de Tabasco, or, as it is 
sometimes called, Villa de San Juan Bautista, which lies on the left 
bank of the Tabasco river twenty-four leagues from its mouth. It 
contains about 7,000 inhabitants, and is reached by vessels of light 
draft from the sea; but its chief commercial intercourse is carried on 
with adjoining states and with Guatemala. There, are some other 
towns or villages worthy of mention; the principal of which are 
Usumasinta, Nacayuca, Tacotalpa, Teapa, Jalapa, Chontalpa, Jalpa, 
Cunduacan, Macuspana, Chiltepec, Santa Anna, Tonala, Acalpa, 
Chinameca, Tochla, Istapa or Ystapangahoya, San Fernando, Ta- 
pichulapa, and Obsolotan. 


Bigs os Gi ees a ard od Ul 


BOUNDARIES OF VERA CRUZ—RIVERS, LAGUNES, MINERAL SPRINGS, 
POPULATION, POLITICAL DIVISIONS, PRODUCTIONS, CATTLE, CITIES, 
TOWNS.— VERA CRUZ—ITS DISEASES— METEOROLOGICAL OBSER- 
VATIONS AT— WATER FALLEN AT VERA CRUZ.— ORIZABA — ASCENT 
OF THE MOUNTAIN— MAGNIFICENT VIEWS -—— DIFFICULTIES — THE 
CRATER EXTINCT—ELEVATION OF THE MOUNTAIN —— DESCENT.— 
ANTIQUITIES IN THE STATE OF VERA CRUZ—RUINS AT PANUCO, CHA- 
CUACO, SAN NICOLAS, LA TRINIDAD—SMALL FIGURES.—PAPANTLA 
— DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMID.—RUINS AT MAPILCA— PYRAMID 
AND TEMPLE AT TUSAPAN—ISLE OF SACRIFICIOS — MISANTLA — RE- 
MAINS NEAR PUENTE NACIONAL. — TAMAULIPAS -— BOUNDARIES, RIV- 
ERS, LAGUNES, CLIMATE, POPULATION, PRODUCTIONS, TOWNS.—— AN- 
TIQUITIES OF TAMAULIPAS —TOPILA——-RANCHO DE LAS PIEDRAS-—— 
SCULPTURE— REMAINS, ETC., ETC. 


PA STATE OF VERA, CRUZ. 


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———— 


PLAZA OF VERA CRUZ. 

Tue State of Vera Cruz lies under the burning sky of the tropics 
between 17° 85’ and 22° 17’ of north latitude; and 96° 46’ and 
101° 21’ west longitude frem Paris. It is comprised within a long 
but somewhat narrow strip of territory along the Gulf of Mexico, 
running from the mouth of the Tampico river, in the north, to the 


184 RIVERS—LAGUNES—MINERAL SPRINGS — POPULATION. 


Guasacualco and the boundaries of Tabasco, on the south. Its 
length is 166 leagues; its breadth, from 25 to 28; and it is estima- 
ted to contain an area of 5,000 square leagues. It is bounded east- 
wardly by the Gulf; south by Tabasco; north by Tamaulipas; and 
west and south-west by Oajaca, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro and San 
Luis Potosi. The eastern part of the State is generally level, low 
and sandy; but, further inland, it gradually rises as the traveller leaves 
the arid and burning wastes of the coast, until the country is broken 
into an uninterrupted series of lofty mountains and beautiful vallies. 

The coasts of this State are rich in rivers, streams, inlets, and 
lacunes ; but, unfortunately, they are either not navigable for any 
considerable distance, or are obstructed by bars at their mouths. 
Among these streams the following are chiefly to be noticed as of 
importance: ‘The Rio Tampico, the Garzes, the Tuspan, the Ca- 
zones, the Tenistepec, the Jajalapam or Tecolutla, the Nautla, the 
Palmar, the Misantla, the Maguilmanapa, the Yeguascalco, the Ac- 
topan, the Chuchalaca, the Antigua, the Jamapa, the Rio Blanco, 
the San Juan or Ady anadns the Aquivilco, and the Gtasacualco 
which is a boundary stream between the States of Vera Cruz, Oajaca 
and ‘Tabasco. 

The principal lagunes in the State of Vera Cruz are: —The La- 
guna de ‘l'amiahua, the largest on this coast of Mexico, being ten 
leagues long and eight leagues broad. It has two mouths in the 
Gulf;—one at the bar of Tamiahua, and the other, further south 
near the mouth of the small stream of Tuspan. Between these 
mouths lies the island of Tuspan; while the two islands of Juan — 
Ramirez and El Toro are found in the lake or lagune itself. The 
next lagune in importance is that of Tampico, four leagues long and 
three broad; and besides this, there are—the Lagunas de Mandin- 
go, of Alvarado, (which is subdivided into eight smaller lagunes,) 
of Catemaico, Alijoyaica, and Tenango. 

There are several mineral springs in this State, and at Atotonilco, 
near Calcahualco, in the district of Cordova, there are warm baths 
which are celebrated for their efficacy in nervous and rheumatic dis- 
eases, There are mineral waters also near the hacienda of Alma- 
gros, in the district of Acayucam, and other warm springs near 
Aloténgo in the distriet of Jalanzingo, whose qualities have not yet 
been ascertained by chemical analysis. 

The population has been estimated by recent writers at near 
251,000; which distributed over the 5,000 square leagues will give 
about 50 inhabitants to the square league. According to our esti- 
mate in the chapter on population, the number may be set down at 


Bate + ane oe 


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POLITICAL DIVISIONS — PRODUCTIONS. 185 


270,000. The milder regions about Jalapa and Orizaba are more 
thickly peopled, than the comparatively sterile and sickly shores of 
the gulf. The population is composed of mixed races :— Creoles, 
Indians, Havanese, Foreigners, and a few Negroes. 

The State of Vera Cruz is divided into four Departments and 
twelve districts, with 103 municipalities and 1,370 village juris- 
dictions. 3 

Ist. The Department of Jalapa, with two districts or cantons, 
viz :—Jst, Jalapa, including the capital of that name,—thirty-one 
villages, fourteen haciendas and sixteen ranchos ;—-and 2d, Jalan- 
zingo, with the towns of Perote and Jalanzingo, five villages, seven 
haciendas and thirty-three ranchos, 

2d. The Department of Orizaba, with three districts or cantons: 
Ist, Orizaba, including the city of that name, — Sougolican, twen- 
ty-seven villages, six haciendas and fifty ranchos, 2d, Cordova, 
including the city of that name, and the towns of Coscomatepec and 
San Antonio Huatusco,—twenty villages, twenty-eight haciendas 
237 ranchos,—and 3d, Cosamaloapan, with eight villages, five ha- 
ciendas and forty-one ranchos. 

3d. The Department of Vera Cruz with four districts or cantons: 
Ist, Vera Cruz, including the capital of that name, with Alvarado 
and Medellin, 21 haciendas, 149 estancias, and 600 ranchos. 
2d, Misantla, with four villages, two haciendas, and _ thirty-four 
ranchos. 3d, Papantla, with thirteen villages, seven ranchos and 
the hacienda de Norias. 4th, Tampico, with Tampico and Pa- 
nuco, — seven villages, thirty-nine haciendas and forty-one ranchos. 

Ath. The Department of Acayucam, with three districts or can- 
tons :—Ist, Acayucam, with the adjacent Acayucam and San Juan 
Oldta, nineteen villages, twelve haciendas, twenty-seven hatos and 
eleven ranchos, 2d, Huimanguillo, with twenty-one villages, one 
hacienda and nineteen ranchos. 3d, San Andres Tuztla, with the 
adjacent San Andres and Santiago Tuxtla,— two villages, one ha- 
cienda, thirty-four hatos, and eight ranchos. 

It is impossible in a description of this rich and varied State to 
sum up with accuracy what it produces either naturally or by in- 
troduction from abroad, for its genial climate, changed by the ele- 
vation of the interior portions of the State, renders it capable of 
yielding the fruits, the flowers, the grains, the woods, the vegeta- 
bles and the animals of the temperate as well as of the torrid zone. 
Tobacco, coffee, sugar, cotton, corn, barley, wheat, jalap, sarsapa- 
rilla, vainilla, mameis, papayas, pine-apples, oranges, citrons, 
lemons, pomegranates, zapotes, bananas, chirimogas, aguacates, 

x 


186 CATTLE — CITIES, TOWNS — VERA CRUZ. 


tunas, pears, watermelons, peaches, apricots, guyavas, grapes; 
mahogony, ebony, cedar, oak, dragon-blood, tamarinds, palms, 
dyewoods, and a thousand other plants, trees, shrubs, cereals and 
parasites, spring almost spontaneously from the soil, and render the 
necessary labor of man almost insignificant. After the strip of sandy 
sea-shore has been passed, and the country begins gradually to rise, 
health and rich vegetation follow the traveller’s footsteps. He be- 


holds on every side magnificent forests filled with majestic trees - 


and illuminated by the splendid colors of flowers and buds. In the 
midst of these solitary folds among the mountains, farms and plan- 
tations are opened, which gleam with the freshest verdure of cane 
or corn; while over the levels, innumerable herds of cattle are fed 
from the mere fulness of the land, and without the necessary tend- 
ing either of shepherds or vaqueros. An idea of this State’s rich- 
ness in cattle may be formed from the following account of the 
number it possessed in 1831, — the district of Jalapa being ex- 
cluded from the list, inasmuch as there were no returns for that 
year : — 


20D Te : ; . neat cattle, 
49,321 : Made i horses, 
D390" © . : : . mules, 
3,110 ; : asses, 
LiS6SO. ; : : . goats, 
35,325 sheep 5 


the total vale of velitch, pogenier wih the cattle product of the 
canton of Jalapa, cannot be less than $2,000,000. 


The principal cities, towns and villages of the State of Vera 
Cruz, are 1st, La Villa rica or La Villa Heroica de la Vera Cruz— 
the capital of the State; 2d, Tampico or Pueblo viejo de Tampico; 
3d, Panuco; 4th, Tuspan; 5th, Misantla; 6th, Papantla. [On the 
road from the port of Vera Cruz to the western limit of the State, 
lie Paso de Ovejas, Puente del Rey or Puente Nacional, Plan del 
Rio, and El Encero, but these are small towns or villages of no great 
consideration.| 7th, Alvarado; 8th, Boca del Rio; 9th, Tlacotal- 
pan; 10th, Cotastla; 11th, Talascoyan; 12th, San Martin Acayu- 
cam; 13th, San Andres Tuxtla; 14th, Santiago Tuxtla; 15th, 
Soconusco; 16th, Jaltipan; 17th, Chinameca; 18th, Orizaba; 
19th, Cordova; 20th, Cosamaloapam; 21st, Aculzingo; 22d, Ja- 
lapa; 23d, Jalanzingo, and 24th, Perote. 

The port of Vera Cruz lies in 19° 11! 52” north latitude, and 
98° 29’ 19" west longitude, from Paris, on a sandy plain, —inter- 


iC Ss ee ee He ee ee » se. 


ITS DISEASES — METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT. 187 


spersed with marshes,— which bound the Gulf of Mexico. Its 
unhealthiness is proverbial. From the month of May to that of 
November, —comprising the usual period during which the north- 
ers cease blowing,—the vomito prieto, or black vomit, prevails 
incessantly at Vera Cruz. None but natives of the town, or accli- 
mated foreigners, are free from its attacks, and the frightful inroads 
it made among our troops, in the year 1847, will long be remem- 
bered in the history of our army and country. Time does not appear 
to have had any effect on this dreadful disease. Increase of popu- 
lation and sanatory precautions do not seem to abate its malignity ; 
and the science of the ablest physicians is entirely at fault in deal- 
ing with it. Diarrhoea, dysentery and vomito are the most fatal 
and prevalent maladies at Vera Cruz; and, the latter disease, is 
reckoned to cause one-sixth of the whole mortality of the port. 


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188 WATER FALLEN AT VERA CRUZ — ORIZABA. 


Table showing the fall of water at Vera Cruz in the years from 
1822 to 1830, both inclusive: 


Years. Feet. Inches. Tenths. 
1822 13 1 5 
1823 15 8 9 
1824. 10 7 1 
1825 20 6 4 
1826 1 5 4 4 
1827? Pall 2 8 
1828 12 2 0) 
1829 23 2 3 
1830 17 1 4 


The majestic mountain of Orizaba, or Citlaltepetl, the ‘‘ Moun- 
tain of the Star,” is found within the limits of the State of Vera 
Cruz, and as it is somewhat renowned in all geographical descrip- 
tions of this continent, we shall insert the first authentic account of 
its ascent we have ever seen, which was prepared by Lieutenant 
W. F. Reynolds, of the United States Topographical Engineers, 
who, with some friends, reached the lofty peak whilst serving with 
our army in Mexico. 

“The Peak of Orizaba,”’ says he, “though situated nearly a 
hundred miles in the interior, is the first land beheld on approaching 
Vera Cruz from the gulf. Being visible nearly fifty miles at sea, it 
is the most important land mark to the sailor in these regions. 
While the command under General Bankhead, which was the first 
to march from Vera Cruz to the city of Onzaba, was ‘en route,’ 
in February, 1848, the mountain being constantly in view, a trip to 
its summit was frequently discussed; and after our arrival at that 
place, the marvellous stories told by the inhabitants only increased 
our desire to make the attempt. All agreed that the summit had 
never been reached, though several knew or heard of its being 
attempted. The difficulties to be encountered were represented as 
being perfectly insurmountable; craggy precipices were to be 
climbed; gullies, two thousand feet deep, it was said, were to be 
crossed; inclined planes of smooth ice were to be ascended; to say 
nothing of avalanches, under which, we were assured, all the rash 
party who made the daring attempt would surely find a grave. 
These extraordinary stories produced quite a different effect from 


the one anticipated, and the question was not who would go, but 


1 This year was remarkable for its dryness and the loss of cattle on the coasts in 
consequence. 
2 In this year the observations include only ten months. 


4 


ve 


SL ae a eee le ee eS 


eS Si Ss. a el 


ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 189 


who would stay home. It was not, however, till the latter part of 
April that the weather was thought favorable, and securing, for the 
proposed expedition, the sanction of the commanding officer, we 
made our preparations for overcoming all obstacles. Accordingly, 
long poles were prepared, shod with iron sockets at one end and 
hooks at the other, to assist in scaling precipices ; ropes with iron 
erapnels were to be thrown over a projecting crag or icy point; 
rope ladders were made to be used if required; shoes and sandals 
with sharp projecting points to assist in climbing the icy slopes, 
were also bespoken ;—in short, everything that was thought might 
be needed or would increase the chances of success, was taken 
along. ‘The selection of a route presented some difficulty, different 
ones being recommended —those by San Andres and San Juan de 
Coscomatepec particularly. In order to decide between them, we 
endeavored to persuade some of the intelligent citizens who were 
acquainted with the country, to go with us. At first they con- 
sented, but as the time approached one after another declined, till 
finally, when the party assembled for starting, it was found we were 
to go alone. Then, as some inclined to one route and others to 
another, we concluded to reject all their recommendations, and go 
direct to the mountain, following the path taken by the Indians 
engaged in bringing down snow to the city, as far as the limits of 
vegetation, and from that point to go round the peak to the side 
that would present the best prospect for success. 3 

‘We left the city of Orizaba on the morning of the 7th of May, 
the party consisting of ten officers, including one of the navy, thirty- 
four soldiers, and two sailors serving with the naval battery, three 
or four Mexicans and Indians as guides, and enough pack mules to 
carry our provisions and equipments. Our expedition setting out 
during the armistice, it was thought advisable to procure a passport 
from the prefect of Orizaba to provide against exigencies. About 
six miles from the city of Orizaba we passed through the small Indian 
village of La Perla; the inhabitants were much frightened at our 
approach, but our passport soon quieted them, and when they came 
to know the object of our visit, they seemed to regard us as the 
greatest set of donkeys they ever saw, telling us very plainly that we 
could never reach the summit. Nothing daunted, however, we con- 
tinued on, and immediately after leaving the village commenced a 
rapid assent, and began to enjoy views which in themselves would 
have amply repaid us for our trouble. We encamped for the night 
at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the level of the sea; the night 
was clear and bracing, but not cold enough to be uncomfortable. 


190 MAGNIFICENT VIEWS. 


The next morning was beautiful and clear, and after an early break- 
fast, we were again in motion. The scenery was truly sublime, and 
ascending one mountain after another, valley after valley appeared 
in view; hills which at first seemed mountains, seemed gradually 
sinking before our feet, and the range of vision constantly extending, 
we could not help making frequent halts to admire scenes which 
cannot be surpassed, and which at every successive turn broke upon 
our sight with redoubled magnificence and grandeur. We were 
now in the region of pines and northern plants; the old familiar 
oak, the birch, and trees unknown to the lower countries, were 
around us; the heavy undergrowth had disappeared, and we could 
almost imagine ourselves in our ‘dear native land.’ Cultivation 
does not extend up as high as we expected to see it; we passed the 
upper limit about 8,000 feet elevation. About 12 o’clock, and at an 
elevation of rather more than 10,000 feet, the guides reported that 
the mules could go no farther, and not knowing anything of our 
route beyond, we were compelled to encamp for the night. A bro- 
ther officer and myself, however, being on horse-back and feeling 
comparatively fresh, determined to go forward and explore. We 
concluded that it would not do to stop where we were, but the mules 
with light loads could go still higher. Accordingly, next morning 
we again started, four or five of us going in advance to select a 
good place for encampment, and also to explore the best route for 
the final ascent. We selected our camp on the verge of vegetation, 
and went forward by routes far above the line of eternal snow. 
Under shelter of a rock, and far above that line, some of the party 
found a rude cross, decorated with paper ornaments and surrounded 
by tallow candles. Its history we were unable to learn, but it gave 
rise to many reflections. Who placed it there? when was it erected ? 
and what event did it record? were questions asked, but not an- 
swered. During the trip several parties of Indians passed us, who 
make a regular business of bringing down snow on their backs to 
the citizens of Orizaba. The cross was probably erected by some 
of them. On our return, we found all our baggage brought up to 
the new encampment, notwithstanding it had been pronounced im- 
possible, and on comparing notes, selected the route which seemed 
most practicable, and prepared for the ascent in the morning. The 
night was clear and cold, the thermometer falling below the freezing 
point; a heavy frost and frozen water reminding us forcibly of 
‘auld lang syne.’ While sitting round our camp-fires this evening, 
it was discovered that there were two flags in the party; the sailors 
not knowing that one had been brought along, had carried materials 


on. oe 


ASCENT OF ORIZABA— DIFFICULTIES. 191 


‘and manufactured one in the camp. It was proposed to get up a 


rivalry as to which flag should be planted first, but we came to the 
conclusion at last, that should the summit be reached, the honor 
should be equally shared. As night came on, we enjoyed a most 
magnificent sight; the clouds gathered round the foot of the moun- 
tain so as to entirely obstruct our view, while the distant lightning 
flash, darting from cloud to cloud, was visible far beneath our feet ; 
the sky overhead being bright and beautiful. We were encamped 
at an elevation, according to the barometer, of 12,000 feet, about 
double that of the highest peak of the White Mountains—while the 
summit still raised its snow-white head above us to a height nearly 
equal to that of Mount Washington above the sea, and seemed to 
frown upon the pigmies who dared to attempt to scale its giddy, and, 
as yet, unascended height. At daylight on the morning of the 10th 
of May, we were again in motion; many of the party had already 
given out, so that there were but twenty-four persons to start on the 
final journey. In a few minutes we were at the foot of the snow, 
and taking the route over which there seemed to be the least of it, 
passed for half or three-fourths of a mile over loose volcanic sand. 
On measuring the slope of this, I found it to be 33°. It was by 
far the most difficult portion of our ascent ; sinking up to our knees 
in sand, we seemed to go back about as far as we stepped forward, 


while the rarefied condition of the atmosphere made exertion painful 


in the extreme; indeed, during the whole of this day’s ascent, it 
was impossible to advance fifty paces without stopping to take 
breath. When not exerting ourselves, we could breathe with com- 
parative ease; but the moment we moved, we were reminded of our 
great elevation. I can only compare the sensation to that felt by a 
person who, after running at the top of his speed, is ready to sink 
down from sheer exhaustion. 

“¢ At length, however, we reached firm rock, and it was quite a 
relief to be able once more to climb with our hands and feet. But 
we were yet far from the point at which we were aiming, and before 
reaching it were to be many times sorely disappointed. A project- 
ing crag, far above, would be hailed as the summit; step after step 
the weary body was dragged along, until at length it was reached ; 
but, once there, it was found to be but the base of another still 
higher ;—this, too, being overcome, another was discovered above. 
Thus, time after time, were our expectations crushed, till hope 
seemed almost to have forsaken us, and one after another dropped 
behind in despair. But—-‘ advance ’—was our motto, and onward 
we pushed, until at length the efforts of some of the party were 


192 THE CRATER EXTINCT—ELEVATION OF THE MOUNTAIN. 


crowned with success, and they dropped exhausted on the brink of 
the crater. 

‘“‘ The crater is nearly circular and variously estimated by different 
members of our troop at from 400 to 650 yards in diameter. We 
all estimated the depth at 300 feet. The sides are nearly vertical, 
and show strong and unmistakeable signs of fire, looking like the 
mouth of a gigantic furnace. 

‘¢ At the foot of this perpendicular wall was quite a bank of sand 
or débris, which had fallen from the inner surface of the rock, indi- 
cating the great length of time since the volcano had been extinct. 
Indeed its fires were perfectly dead, for the bottom of the crater was 
covered with snow. Humboldt says its most violent eruptions were 
in 1545 and 1566,—nor have I seen a record of an eruption since. 

‘¢ As I desired to test Humboldt’s altitude, I had taken the pre- 
caution to be as well prepared as circumstances would admit, and 
accordingly had carried with me the best barometer I could get, 
which, from previous calculations, I deemed capable of indicating a 
height of from 300 to 400 feet higher than that given by him. I 
had, also, provided myself with a spirit-lamp and thermometer, for 
the purpose of taking the temperature of boiling water; but, on the 
march, the bottle containing the alcohol was broken and the spirit 
entirely lost. I therefore determined to test the combustible quali- 
ties of whiskey. One of my first objects after reaching the summit 
was to make observations; but, on preparing the barometer, the 
mercury sank at once below the graduation. 

‘“‘T estimated the distance between the lowest line of graduation 
and the top of the mercury at two-tenths of an inch, which gives, — 
with corresponding observations in the city of Orizaba at the same 
hour, —an elevation of 17,907 feet, and makes it the highest point on 
the North American Continent. I do not think I could have been far 
wrong in my estimate, as the means of comparison were before me ; 
but, even supposing I was mistaken one-twentieth of an inch, we still 
have an elevation of 17,819 feet, 98 feet higher than Popocatepetl, 
which is usually considered the highest point,—5,400 metres, or, 
17,721 feet, as given by Humboldt.!. The temperature was just 
below freezing point. My attempt to burn whiskey failed. Since 
my return to the United States, I have observed that Humboldt 
states that Mr. Ferrar measured Orizaba, eight years before his 
arrival in Mexico, and gave the mountain an elevation of 5,450 
metres or 17,885 feet. Humboldt’s measurement, made from a 


1Tt will be seen hereafter that expeditions subsequent to Humboldt’s calculation 
give Popocatepetl a height of 17,884 feet. 


DESCENT—ANTIQUITIES IN STATE OF VERA CRUZ. 193 


plain near Jalapa, is 155 metres less, or 17,377 feet in all. It will 
be seen that my determination agrees very nearly with that of Mr. 
Ferrar. 


‘¢We remained on the summit about an hour,—planted our 
national banner and saluted it with three hearty cheers. The day 
was clear, but the atmosphere thick and smoky, so that we did not 
~ enjoy the views we had hoped for; but as we believed ourselves to 
have been the first who ever looked into the crater, we were amply 
repaid for our trouble. 

‘¢ The descent was by no means so difficult as the ascent; a slide 
on the snow or sand carried us hundreds of feet down a space 
which had required many weary steps to ascend. About dark we 
arrived at our encampment, highly delighted with our trip, though 
much exhausted. All who made the final attempt were more or less 
affected either with violent headaches, nausea, and vomiting, or 
bleeding at the nose. The veils which we provided for our journey 
did good service, but the face, and particularly the lips, of all who 
reached the summit, became so extremely swollen and cracked as to 
confine them to their rooms for several days. } 

‘“¢ The difficulty of the undertaking had been greatly magnified ;— 
none of our preparations, excepting veils, were necessary. The 
sand is the most serious obstacle to be overcome, and by taking a 
more circuitous route from our last encampment, this might have 
been avoided. All that is required is patience, perseverance and 
a physical constitution capable of sustaining fatigue.” 


ANCIENT REMAINS IN THE STATE OF VERA CRUz. 


During the sojourn of Mr. Norman in Mexico, in 1844, as de- 
~ scribed in his ‘“‘ Rambles by Land and Water,” he made an excur- 
sion to visit the ancient town of Panuco, where he was received 
with the greatest kindness and hospitality by the white and half- 
breed inhabitants. His route lay along the banks of the river, and 
across the prairies: the common road being only a bridle path 
through the forest which is never travelled but with the greatest 
caution and watchfulness. Here, as in the State of Tamaulipas, he 
visited the Indian huts that lay in his way ; but it was quite impos- 
sible to convince the credulous children of the wilderness that the 
acquisition of gold was not the real object of his visit ;— and this 
circumstance may account for the fact that he obtained from them 
so little information respecting the neighborhood. 
Y 


194 RUINS AT PANUCO — CHACUACO—SAN NICOLAS. 


Panuco, an old town of the Huestecos, which is subject to occa- 
sional inundation during the rainy season, is the only important set- 
tlement above Tampico, on the Panuco river, and contains about 
four thousand inhabitants. It is beautifully seated on the banks of 
the stream, in the State of Vera Cruz, about thirty leagues from 
Tampico by water and fifteen by land. In its vicinity, scattered 


over an area of many miles, are ancient ruins, whose history is not 


only entirely unknown to the inhabitants, but seems not to excite 
their interest or curiosity. Mr. Norman could not discover the 
slightest trace of a tradition on the subject amongst the neighboring 
people, though he diligently sought it from every reliable source. 
Several days were employed by him in explorations, and his toil 
was occasionally rewarded by the discovery of strange and novel 
objects. Among these was a handsome block or slab, seven feet in 
length, one foot in thickness, and two and a half in average width. 
Upon its surface was beautifully wrought, in bold relief, the full length 
figure of a man in a loose robe, with a girdle about his loins, his 
arms crossed on his breast, his head encased in a close cap or 
casque somewhat resembling a helmet without the crest, while his 
feet and ankles were bound with the thongs of sandals. ‘The edges 
of this block were ornamented with a plain raised border, about an 
inch and a half square. The figure is that of a tall athletic man of 
fine proportions, whose features are of the noblest class of the Euro- 
pean or Caucasian race, and the execution of the sculpture was 
equal to the very best that the traveller found among the wonderful 
relics of the country. It was found lying on the side of a ravine, 
resting upon the dilapidated walls of an ancient sepulchre, of which 
nothing now remains but a loose pile of hewn stones. It was more 
than four feet beneath the present surface of the ground, and was 
brought to light in the course of excavating which revealed a cor- 
ner of the slab, and the loose adjacent stones that had been bared 
by the rush of waters in the rainy season, while breaking a new and 
deep channel to the river. The earth that covered the slab and 
sepulchre had not been heaped by the hand of man; but was the 
natural accumulation of time, and many years must have been re- 
quisite to bury it so deeply. 


Three leagues south of Panuco, there are other ancient Indian 
remains which are known as the ruins of Chacuaco, and are repre- 
sented as covering an area of three square leagues, all of which 
were comprised within the bounds of a large city; we should 
mention also the ruins of San Nicolas, five leagues south-west; and 


“AVTO NI SHUNOIA O4LZV 


cite 


po 


196 AT LA TRINIDAD— SMALL FIGURES — PAPANTLA. 


those of La Trinidad, about six leagues in nearly the same direc- 
tion. Besides these, there are other ruins of which the traveller 
was informed, situated at a still greater distance, all of which pre- 
sent the same general features as those already described, and pro- 
bably belonged to the same period, or were built by the same race. 
The whole region is alleged to to be full of these memorials of the 
number, power and wealth of the ill-fated nations that once dwelt 
and worshipped on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Cordilleras. 

Domestic utensils made of the ordinary pottery of the country, 
but skilfully and even artistically formed, have been exhumed from 
among these ruins of ancient cities; and in the course of Mr. Nor- 
man’s explorations he unearthed two singular and grotesque images 
which probably figured in the idolatrous worship of the Indians. 
Our traveller found that similar images were used by the Indian 
women of the present day, who suspended them about their necks as 
talismans, and especially relied on them in seasons of sickness and 
danger. ‘The images referred to are hollow, with a small aperture 
near one of the shoulders, and are filled with balls as large as a pea, 
which are supposed to have been made of the ashes of victims sacri- 
ficed in former days to the gods. We have ourselves seen numbers 
of these earthern figures in the valley of Mexico, where they are 
vulgarly known as ‘‘ Mexican’s Idols.” Travellers have usually 
classed them among the Dw Penates or household gods of the Az- 
tecs or Toltecs, but we have regarded them either as the ornaments 
of a primitive people or as the dolls and playthings of their chil- 
dren. In our plates of antiquities discovered in the valley, several 
figures are to be found which we think belong unquestionably to 
this class. 


Pyramip oF PAPANTLA. 


Sixteen leagues from the sea and fifty-two north of Vera Cruz, 
on the eastern slope of the Cordilleras, lies the village of Papantla, 
in the midst of plains which are constantly fertilized by streams that 
descend from the mountains. It is the centre of a remarkably rich 
agricultural district, capable of producing the most luxuriant crops 
of pepper, coffee, tobacco, cotton, vainilla, sugar and _ sarsaparilla, 
and abounding in all varieties of valuable woods; but the heat and 
maladies of the burning climate prevent the whites from venturing 
to till so dangerous a district. Accordingly we find that this In- 
dian village has hardly a single Spanish inhabitant or visiter except 
the priest and the traders who come from the coast to traffic their 
foreign goods for the products of the aborigines. Two leagues 


Ail a SCO jr 
hac noi 


THC A 
‘et hi | MO OA 


LM re a oe i 
Mi a non ft nN) i von 
-. ia g i 


PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMID. 197 


from this secluded hamlet, lie spread over the plain, the massive 
ruins of an ancient city, which in its palmy days was more than a 
mile and a half in circuit. It isa matter of great regret that these 
relics have never been sufficiently explored, drawn and described. 
The most satisfactory account that we possess of them is that given 
in the ‘ Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique” of Monsieur Nebel, 
who visited them several years ago, and has sketched the beautiful 
pyramid represented in the plate, which is unquestionably one of 
the most perfect and symmetrical relics of antiquity within the present 
limits of the republic. Time has done its work upon this remarka- 
ble remain; and trees, plants and vines, which grow so rapidly in 
this teeming climate, have sprung among its joints and stories. 


The Indians of the neighborhood call this pyramid ‘ El Tajin ;” 
it consists of seven bodies, stages or stories, each of which rises at 
the same angle of inclination, and is terminated by a frieze and cor- 
nice. It is constructed of sand-stone beautifully squared, joined 
and covered with hard stucco, which appears to have been painted. 
The pyramid measures one hundred and twenty feet on every side 
at its base, and is ascended by a stair composed of fifty seven steps, 
each measuring one foot in height, and terminating at the top of the 
sixth story. ‘This stairway is divided in three places, by square re- 
cesses two feet in depth, resembling those which perforate the 
friezes on each of the stories. The stair ends at the top of the sixth 
story, and the seventh, which seems to be in ruins, is hollow, and 
was probably the shrine wherein sacrifices were offered before the 
image of the god to whom the pyramid was dedicated. Monsieur 
Nebel does not state the height of this edifice ; but as he gives the 
elevation of each of the fifty-seven steps, we may calculate that the 
summit of the shrine is at least sixty-six feet above the base. 


ANCIENT HEADS MADE OF CLAY. 


198 RUINS AT MAPILCA. 


MAPILCA. 


A few leagues from Papantla, near an Indian rancho called Ma- 
pilca, Mr. Nebel found pyramids, sculptured stones, and the ruins 
of an extensive city, which it was impossible for him to examine in 
consequence of the thick vegetation with which they are covered in 
the dim recesses of the forest. The artist was alone in the wilder- 
ness, and unaided except by a few indolent Indians who were indis- 
posed to further his researches. The stone, which is presented in the 
annexed drawing, is twenty-one feet long, and of a close grained 
granite; the figures, carved on its surface, differ from the ancient 
sculptures found on this side of the Cordilleras, and resemble those 
found in Oajaca, more than any others in Mexico. Mr. Nebel 
caused an excavation to be made in front of this relic, which he 
supposed had once formed part of an edifice, and at some distance 
below the surface he struck upon a road formed of irregular blocks, 
not unlike the old Roman pavements. 


PYRAMID AND TEMPLE AT TUSAPAN. 199 


TUSAPAN. 


About fifteen leagues west from Papantla, in a small plain at the 
feet of the eastern Cordillera of Mexico, are the remains of Tusa- 
pan, which is supposed to have been a city of the Totonacs. The 
vestiges of this little Indian city are almost obliterated, and the only 
very significant relics are the pyramidal edifice exhibited in the an- 
nexed plate, and a singular fountain, a drawing of which is given 
in the work of M. Nebel. 

The pyramid, built of stones of unequal size, extends thirty feet 
on each of its sides at the base, and the summit of its single story 
is reached by a flight of stairs. Upon the platform of this base a 
square tower is erected, which is entered by a door whose posts and 
lintel, as well as the friezes of the edifice, have been elaborately 
carved. In front of the door, within the tower, stands the pedestal 
of the ancient divinity, but the idol itself has been destroyed. The 
interior of this apartment is twelve feet square, and its ceiling, like 
the external roof, terminates in a point. 

Around the pyramid are scattered masses of stones, sculptured 
into the images of men and various animals; and from the inferior 
manner in which the carving on these objects is executed, we may 
judge that this religious temple was not the most celebrated archi- 


tectural or artistic work of the ancient inhabitants. 
Z, 


~ 200 ISLE OF SACRIFICIOS. 


The fountain which we have already mentioned is a single female 
figure in an indecent squatting attitude, nineteen feet high, and cut 
from the solid rock. The remains of a pipe which conveyed the 
water to it, are still visible behind the head, and the liquid passed 
through the body of the gigantic image until it was discharged be- 
neath into the basin or canal, by which it was carried to the neigh- 
boring town. The Indian tradition, as recounted by Nebel, states, 
that the ancient inhabitants of this spot, abandoned it, in conse- 
quence of the unfertility of the soil and the failure of the streams, 
and that they took refuge in, or united themselves with the occupants 
of Papantla. 


ISLAND OF SACRIFICIOS. 


At the period of the Conquest of Mexico, this small island, which 
lies a few miles from the present city and port of Vera Cruz, and 
under whose lee is found the best anchorage on the Eastern Coast 
for vessels of war, was unquestionably a spot sacred to sacrifice 
and burial. 

But no one seems to have examined this island, with a truly anti- 
quarian spirit, until it was visited in 1841, by M. Dumanoir, who 
commanded a French vessel of war which was then anchored at the 
island. Previous to this time it had been trodden by thousands of 
idle sailors and landsmen who raked its surface for the Indian 
relics of pottery and obsidian which lay scattered in every direc- 
tion; and, consequently there was little of value to be discovered 
above ground. Accordingly, Monsieur Dumanoir undertook to 
make suitable excavations, and, in the centre of the islet he discov- 
ered various sepulchres, in which the skeletons were found in a 
state of excellent preservation. Besides this, his trouble was re- 
warded by the exhumation of large numbers of clay vases, covered 
with paintings and etchings, together with idols, images, collars, 
bracelets, arms, teeth of dogs and tigers, and a beautiful urn carved 
either in white marble or in the alabaster which abounds in the 
neighborhood of Puebla. 


MISANTLA. 


About thirty miles from the town of Jalapa, on a ridge of moun- 
tains in the canton of Misantla, rises the Cerro or hill of Estillero, 
near which there is a precipitous mountain on whose narrow strip 
of table land at the summit, were discovered in 1835, the remains 
of an extensive ancient city. The site of this town is perfectly 
isolated. Steep rocks and deep ravines surround the mountain upon 
which it was built, and beyond these dells and precipices there is a 


202 MISANTLA. 


lofty wall of hills from whose summit the sea in the neighborhood 
of Nautla is distinctly visible. The table lands upon which the 
ruins are found is only approachable by the gentler declivities in 
the direction of the hill of Estillero; and, at all other points, 
the lonely eminence appears to have been sundered from the sur- 
rounding regions by some volcanic convulsion. 


Ny 
Nil oS. 


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NY 
Sore 
ty \\; 
Na 


race 


Ree 


pS 
nN 


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p) 


A A 5 
TA 


MISANTLA. 


As the mountain plain on the summit is approached, the traveller 
first discovers a broken wall of massive stones, feebly united by 
cement, which seems to have served for the boundary of a circular 
plaza or area in whose centre rises a pyramid eighty feet high, forty- 
nine feet broad, and forty-two deep. It is divided into three stories 
or stages, and along the sloping sides of the lower and broadest ter- 
race, a stairway leads to the first offset. The second stage is 
ascended by a stair at the side, and the top of the third is reached 
by steps niched into the corner of the pyramid. In front of the 
edifice, on the second story, are two pilastral columns, which it is 
supposed may have been portions of the stairway; but this part of 
the teocalli, and its upper story are so wildly overgrown with trees 
and tropical vegetation that the outline of the structure is greatly ob- 
literated. On the summit, a gigantic tree, has sent its roots deep into 
the spot which was doubtless once the shrine of the Indian temple. 


é 
Pa 


REMAINS NEAR PUENTE NACIONAL. 203 


Beyond the wall of the circular area in which this edifice is 
placed, are found the remains of the city or town, extending nearly 
three miles north in a straight line. The foundations of all the 
houses are stili distinctly traceable. They were built of large 
square stones, and are separated by streets at the distance of about 
three hundred yards from each other. In some of the blocks of 
buildings the walls are yet standing, at a height of between three 
and four feet above the level of the ground. South of the city are 
seen the relics of a low narrow wall, by which it was defended in 
that direction ;—and north of it there is a tongue of land, jutting 
out towards the precipitous edges of the mountain, whose centre is 
occupied by a mound which the explorers have supposed to be the 
ancient cemetery of the inhabitants. On the left acclivity of the 
slope by which the town is approached are twelve sepulchres, seven 
feet in diameter, and as many high, in which several bodies were 
found, parts of which were in good preservation. The walls of 
these tombs are constructed of cut stone; but the mortar that pro- 
bably once joined them, has entirely disappeared. Several erect 
and sitting figures, carved in stone, were discovered on the site of 
this city, and two blocks were found, filled with hieroglyphic char- 
acters. Numbers of vases and utensils, were also unearthed ; but 
they were carried to Vera Cruz, and all trace of them has been 
subsequently lost.1 


REMAINS NEAR PUENTE NACIONAL. 


About a league and a half from the Puente Nacional, or National 
Bridge, to the left of the high road in the midst of a dense forest, 
and near the banks of the stream known as the Rio del Puente, 
Don José Maria Esteva found some interesting remains of antiquity 
in November of 1843. They had been visited in 1819 or ’20, by 
a priest, named Cabeza de Vaca, who was then curate at Puente 
Nacional, but from that period until 1843, they had been entirely 
lost sight of. The temple or teocalli, is situated on the top of a 
small mount, elevated about one hundred and fifty feet above the 
level of the stream, which runs at its feet. In consequence of the 
inequality of the surface of the soil, the edifice is thirty-three 
Spanish feet high, on some of its sides, and forty-two on others. 
It fronts towards the east, and its platform, or upper level, is 
reached by a stairway of thirty-four steps, so steep as to be almost 
perpendicular to its base. The platform is forty-eight Spanish feet 
broad, and seventy long. The semi-circumference of the base is 


1See Mosaico Mejicano. 


204 . REMAINS NEAR PUENTE NACIONAL. 


stated to be one hundred and six feet. The edifice is surrounded by 
six stairways, one foot broad, and the distance between each step 
or stage of the body of the teocalli, 1s about seven feet high nearest 
the base, their height diminishing, however, as you ascend to those 
nearest the platform. The whole structure is built of lime, sand 
and large stones taken from the bed of the river, and although 
shrubs have grown both on the platform and on the stairways, this 
interesting relic of antiquity has been so completely protected, that 
its form is still perfectly preserved. At first sight the edifice would 
seem to be perfectly solid, yet upon examination it has been found 
to be hollow, and that its ancient entrance was from the west. 
This entrance, however, is so small that notwithstanding the 
efforts of laborers who were employed by the explorer to clear 
the fallen rubbish and open a path, they were unable to penetrate 
the whole of the interior chambers. ‘The short time they were 
enabled to devote to this work, and the fear of the Indians to en- 
counter wild beasts and serpents in the interior of the temple, 
deterred Sefior Esteva from further efforts, and thus, perhaps, one of 
the most perfect remains of antiquity on the east coast of Mexico 
is still very inadequately described. ! 


1 See Museo Mejicano, vol. 2, p. 465, for a plate of this temple. 


PUENTE NACIONAL. 


TAMAULIPAS — BOUNDARIES — RIVERS — LAGUNES. 205 


THE STATE OF TAMAULIPAS. 


This State was known, previous to the revolution, as the Iten- 
dencia de San Luis Potosi, and included the colony of Nuevo 
Santander. It is now bounded on the north by the North American 
State of Texas; on the north-west by the Mexican State of Coa- 
huila; on the west by the States of New Leon and San Luis Potosi; 
on the south by San Luis Potosi and Vera Cruz; and, on the east, 
by the Gulf of Mexico. The breadth of the State varies from 
twelve to fifty-five leagues. 

The coast of Tamaulipas is more than three hundred and fifty 
miles in length, and is fringed with lagunes, varying from four to 
eighteen miles in width, which are divided from the gulf by barriers 
and banks of sand. The shallowness of the shores along the whole 
of this coast, and the dangerous bars which choke the mouths of 
the rivers, render the navigation difficult and dangerous for vessels 
of almost all classes. In the northern part of the State, in the 
neighborhood of the Rio Grande, the country is comparatively level. 
South of these high plains, however, and some distance in the 
interior, the land is varied by a succession of mountains, hills and 
vallies, which gradually slope eastwardly until they are lost in the 
flats and sands of the sea coast. The Cerro de Martinez, the Cerro 
de Xeres, the Cerro del Coronel, and the mountain ridges, or sierras, 
de la Palma and del Carico, are the most remarkable elevations. 
The land is well watered. Fine vallies extend along the Rio del 
Norte or Rio Grande, the Tigre, Borbon, Panuco and Dolores. On 
the coast are found the lagunes of La Madre, Morales and Tampico. 

The climate of the interior of ‘Tamaulipas is mild and healthy; 
but on the coast an intense heat prevails during the greater part of 
the year, and, combined with the rank vegetation and moisture, 
produces diseases similar to those which scourge the adjacent shores 
of Vera Cruz. As soon as the northers begin to blow, all nature — 
animal and vegetable — 1s refreshed by the grateful change; but the 
hot season generally recommences in March, and soon spreads 
miasma and death throughout the whole of the low lands. 

The population of Tamaulipas,— consisting chiefly of Meztizos 
and Indians, — was estimated by the Mexican Calendar of 1833, at 
166,824, who were divided among three departments and eleven 
districts or cantons. In 1842 the population, as stated in the 
estimate for a congress, was 100,068 ; and if to this we add ten per 
cent. for the estimated increase in seven years, we shall have 


110,074 in 1850. 


206 CLIMATE — POPULATION -— PRODUCTIONS — TOWNS. 


The chief productions and the indigenous plants are similar to 
those found in the State of Vera Cruz; and considerable trade is 
carried on with the interior —especially with the States of San 
Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and Queretaro,-—in mules, oxen, horses, 
honey and wax. ‘The coasting and foreign commerce is conducted 
principally in the ports of Tampico de Tamaulipas and Matamo- 
ros. From these places, large quantities of European and North 
American manufactures, enter the middle and northern States of 
the republic. Queretaro, San Luis, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Zaca- 
tecas, Jalisco, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora are all benefitted 
by this trade in a greater or less degree; and the Panuco, Rio 
Grande and other streams are all availed of partially for this interior 
trade as far as they are navigable. At Soto la Marina an important 
smugeling business was long and vigorously carried on. 

The capital of this State is Victoria, formerly SanTanDER, a 
town of 12,000 inhabitants. Tampico pE TAMAuLIPAS, on the 
northern bank of the Panuco, which enters the Mexican Gulf five 
miles below the town, is the principal commercial port of the State. 
Its bar is dangerous and its harbor considered unsafe. Large ves- 
sels cannot approach the town, which is situated among extensive 
marshes. It is visited almost every year by the yellow fever ; yet 
its foreign commerce is extensive and appears to be increasing. 

Soto ra Marina is a small village and haven at the mouth of 
the river Santander, on its left bank. It is composed chiefly of 
Indian huts, and contains about 3,000 inhabitants. 

Matamoros lies on the right bank of the Rio Grande or Rio 
Bravo del Norte, at the distance of ten leagues from its mouth. It 
contains about 10,000 inhabitants, who have become well ac- 
quainted with the people of the United States during the recent 
war. The climate of Matamoros is hot and sickly, like that of 
Tampico or Vera Cruz; but as the river upon which it lies is per- 
haps the most important in Mexico, and has proved navigable by 
steamers for a considerable distance in the interior, it is probable 
that this place will become the depot of a large and valuable com- 
merce destined for the supply of the northern States of the Mexican 
confederacy. By the treaty of 1848, the Rio Grande became the 
boundary between large portions of the two republics ; and as the 
intervening country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande is not 
considered at present attractive for agricultural purposes, it is likely 
that it will long continue unoccupied and unsettled, thus leaving 
the whole of our commerce to be conveyed to Matamoros, or to 
our own neighboring settlements on the opposite shore, for distri- 
bution throughout the valley of the Rio Grande. 


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TAM PITCO. 


ANTIQUITIES OF TAMAULIPAS — TOPILA. 207 


The other towns and villages in Tamaulipas worthy of note, are 
Altamira, Horcasitas, Coco, Escandon, Llera, Santillana, Padilla, 
Hoyos, Guadalupe, Reinosa, Camargo, Mier, Revilla, the most im- 
portant of which lie on the margin of, or near, the Rio Grande. 


ANCIENT REMAINS IN TAMAULIPAS. 


The only remains of Indian architecture and civilization of whose 
existence we are aware, are those described in the small work pub- 
lished by Mr. B. M. Norman in 1845, to which we have already 
alluded, entitled ‘‘ Rambles by Land and Water or Notes of ‘Travel 
in Cuba and Mexico.”” This gentleman’s notices of the antiquities 
in this region are exceedingly brief, sketchy and indefinite, nor are 
the illustrations with which his text is accompanied, calculated to 
convey more vivid pictures of the relics he visited or discovered in 
the course of his investigations along the margins of the Panuco. 

Departing from ‘Tampico, in March, 1844, he ascended that river 
in a canoe, paddled by an Indian, and before nightfall, on the second 
day of his primitive voyage, reached Topila creek, three miles from 
the mouth of which he landed at a rancho or cattle farm, belonging 
to Senor Coss, of Tampico. Five miles from this spot, lying to the 
eastward of another rancho, he found several considerable mounds, 
one of which was more than twenty-five feet high and of a circular 
form. At its sides, a number of layers of small flat well hewn 
stones were still to be seen; while scattered about were many others 
of larger size and various shapes. All were perfectly plain or un- 
adorned, and had apparently been used for the door posts and lin- 
tels of edifices. 

On the following day, the traveller visited the rancho de las Pie- 
dras, distant about two leagues and a half in a southerly direction 
from the bank of the Topila. Passing through a dense wilderness, 
he reached after much toil, an elevated table land or plateau, near a 
chain of hills running through this section of country and known 
as the Cerro de Topila. Here he found more scattered stones 
which had once formed parts of buildings; while, further on, he 
discovered several mounds, whose sides were constructed of loose 
layers of smooth and uniform blocks of concrete sandstone. Most 
of these layers, had, however, fallen from their places in the tumuli, 
and were heaped in masses near their base. About twenty of these 
mounds, lay contiguous to each other, varying in height from six to 
twenty-five feet, some being circular and others square. ‘The prin- 
cipal elevation in this group of pyramids covers an area of about 


two acres, and at its base, Mr. Norman discovered a cylindrical 
ya 


208 RANCHO DE LAS PIEDRAS 


SCULPTURE. 


stone slab seven inches thick, four feet nine inches in diameter, and 
pierced through the centre, lying upon the top of a circular wall 
whose top was level with the ground. On removing this stone he © 
found a well filled up with broken stones and fragments of pottery. 
The upper portion of the slab bore evidence of having been origi- 
nally sculptured, but the tracings of the chisel were so much worn 
by time and seasons that they could not be drawn with accuracy. 
On the top of the tumulus, in front of which this well was discov- 
ered, grew a wild fig tree, whose gigantic height of more than an 
hundred feet, indicates the great age of the work and the long pe- 
riod of its abandonment. 

The walls of the adjacent minor mounds had all fallen inward, 
from which the traveller concluded that they had been used for se- 
pulture; but he does not seem to have taken the time or trouble to 
verify this conjecture by personal explorations. ‘The ground, for 
several miles around, was strewn with loose hewn stones of various 
shapes, and broken fragments of pottery, which had unquestionably 
formed parts of domestic utensils. Fragments of obsidian, which 
had no doubt been the knives and weapons of the former inhabi- 
tants of this spot, were also plentifully scattered about, and every 
indication existed of a dense population in the by gone days. These 
ruins are placed by Mr. Norman in 98° 31’ west longitude and 
22° 9! north latitude. 

But the remains of edifices, pyramids and tombs were not the only 
relics found by the traveller in these dense forests bordering the 
Atlantic coast. The Indians who once dwelt in this district, like 
the Aztecs, Zapotecs and Yucatese had evidently devoted them- 
selves to sculpture; but whether for the purpose of simple adorn- 
ment or for idolatry, there are no facts to apprise us with certainty. 
The most remarkable relic found by Norman, was a large head, 
beautifully cut in fine sandstone, of a dark reddish hue, which 
abounds in the neighborhood. ‘The face stands out in bold relief 
from the rough block, as if it had been left unfinished, or as if it 
was originally designed to occupy a place among the ornamental 
portions of an edifice. ‘The industrious traveller caused this object 
to be borne, with others, to Tampico, and has deposited it in the 
collection of the New York Historical Society. Other stones, of a 
somewhat similar character, attracted his attention, but the most 
extraordinary sculpture he has described in his work is that to which 
he assigns the name of the American Sphynx. It is the image of 
a gigantic turtle, with the head of a man protruding boldly from 
beneath its carved and curving case. The back was correctly and 


REMAINS, ETC., ETC. 209 


artistically wrought, and all the lines of the scales were neatly cut in 
exact proportions. There were also in many parts fainter lines, 
shewing that the peculiar and graceful arabesques which are wrought 
by nature on the shell of this amphibious animal, had not been 
overlooked by the artist. This huge figure, raised on its four legs, 
was placed upon a large block of concrete sandstone. All its parts 
were equally true to nature. It was much mutilated, and the human 
head had been especially injured, but not sufficiently to obliterate the 
artistic workmanship with which it had been originally chiselled. 
The place where Mr. Norman found these remains had evidently 
been the site of a large city; and, proceeding with his excavations 
among huge masses of earth or stones of every size and shape, he 
was, at length, rewarded by the discovery of another ancient 
figure. It was merely a human face, in full relief from the block, 
which was entirely cut away from the top and bottom, but left in 
two nearly circular projections at the sides. ‘The ornaments on the 
head are peculiar, and are formed of three balls, with slight inden- 
tations, connected together by a band running across the top of the 
cerebrum and terminating at the sides just above the gigantic ears, 
which are nearly half the size of the face. ‘The features and con- 
tour of the head are described as not resembling those of the Ameri- 
can or Mexican Indian in any of their lines. ‘This head is seven- 
teen inches in length, twenty-one in width, including the ears, and 
ten in thickness. It was found on the side of a large pile of ruins ° 
the remains of dilapidated walls, of which it had unquestionably 
formed one of the ornaments. It is to be regretted that Mr. Nor- 
man was unable to devote more time to the exploration of this re- 
gion. His antiquarian researches however formed only an episode 
in his travels through portions of Mexico, and besides this, his labor 
was exceedingly great in cutting his way through the dense shrub- 
bery which covers the ground amid a wilderness of trees, matted 
and woven together with thousands of creepers or plants whose 
thorns pierced or obstructed him at every moment. He had, more- 
over, to contend with myriads of annoying insects, and he feared 
the bite of the poisonous alacranes or the spring of the tiger that 
sometimes started from the thickets. He received no assistance 
from the stupid Indians dwelling in the neighborhood. They could 
not conceive that curiosity alone would prompt any one to encoun- 
ter the toil and danger which must be endured in explorations in 
the Trerra Cauiente of Mexico, and imagined that the search for 
gold and buried treasure, rather than antiquities, was his real motive 
for attempting to penetrate the recesses of their lonely wilderness. 


CoH PPh Re dT tae 


WEST COAST OR PACIFIC STATES. 


OAJACA — EXTENT — BOUNDARIES — GEOLOGY—VALLEY— INDIANS 
— DEPARTMENTS — POPULATION — MINES — PORTS — PRODUC- 
TIONS — CATTLE — TOWNS—ANCIENT REMAINS — MITLA—THE 
PALACE — TOMBS— ANTIQUARIAN SPECULATIONS — CONNECTION 
OF MEXICAN REMAINS — QUIOTEPEC, OR CERRO DE LAS JUNTAS. 


THE STATE OF OALJNOG 


Tus rich and beautiful State lies, for 118 leagues, along the 
Pacific Ocean. On the north-west, it is bounded by the State of 
Puebla, on the north by Vera Cruz, and east by the State of Chiapas 
and the republic of Central America or Guatemala. It extends 
from east to west about 115 leagues, and from north to south 322 
leagues, containing an area of 5,046 square leagues. 

We pass now from the hot and sickly sands and marshes of the 
eastern coast to a region which has been considered by many 
writers and travellers as the most delightful in Mexico. Beauty of 
natural scenery and salubrity of climate, fertility of soil and richness 
of productions, combine to render Oajaca valuable, not only in a 
commercial aspect, but as a residence in which it would be agree- 
able to pass a life time. Nor is this the opinion only of the present 
inhabitants, for the remains of antiquity still found within the limits 
of the State, prove it to have been the seat of Indian civilization 
long before the arrival of the Spaniards. The geological structure 
of this State is different from that of Puebla and Mexico; and the 
vegetation is quite as vigorous as that of other prolific regions, 
without the rankness which produces rapid decomposition and 
miasma. The rains are generally abundant from May to October. 

In our general description of the geological and geographical 
characteristics of Mexico, we have already shown that the great 


VALLEY — INDIANS — DEPARTMENTS — POPULATION. 211 


Cordillera, forming the spine of this continent, divides into two 
arms after leaving the Isthmus, which connects North and South 
America. One of these mountain ranges with its high vallies and 
table lands forms the barrier along the Pacific, while the other 
spreads out its massive veins throughout the middle and eastern 
portions of Mexico. Between these formations, the Valley of Oajaca 
lies embosomed ; and from this beautiful and fruitful region, which 
was bestowed by the Spanish crown upon Cortéz, he obtained his 
Marquisate del Valle de Oajaca, in which his family still possessed, 
previous to the revolution, 49 villages, with a population of 17,700 
persons. 

In these two mountain regions, thus sundered by the valley, 
have dwelt, from the earliest periods, two Indian races known as 
the Mixtecas and the Zapotecas; the former of which is characterised 
by activity, intelligence and industry. Besides these tribes, seven- 
teen others are reckoned still to inhabit Oajaca. 


The State is divided into eight departments, which are subdi- 
vided into districts or cantons. 

Ist. The Department of the Centre, with the cantons of Oajaca, 
Partido del Toranéo, Etla, Tlacolula, and Zimatlan. 

2d. Department of Ejutla, with the cantons of Octolan, Miahuat- 
lan, and Pochutla. 

dd. Department of Jamiltepec, with the cantons of Jamiltepec 
and Juquila. 

Ath. Department of Tehuantepec, with the cantons of Tehuan- 
tepec, Quechapa and Lachixila. 

oth. Department of 'Teposcolula, with the cantons of Teposcolula, 
Tlaxiaco and Nocnistlan. 

6th. Department of Huajuapam, with the cantons of Huajuapam 
and Justlahuaca. 

7th. Department of Toochila and Villalta, with the cantons of 
Ixtlan, Yalalag and Chuapam. 

8th. The Department of Teutitlan del Camino, with the cantons 
of Teutitlan and Teutila. 

These eight departments and twenty-three cantons,-— with nearly 
700,000 inhabitants, — contain one city, —the capital, Oajaca ; — 
eight towns ; nine hundred and thirteen villages; one hundred and 
thirty-seven large haciendas ; two hundred and thirty-five ranchos ; 
sixty-eight sugar mills or trapiches, and six estancias or cattle 
estates and grazing farms. Besides these elements of agricultural 
wealth, Oajaca possesses ten mills, driven by water power, nearly 


212 MINES — PORTS — PRODUCTIONS — CATTLE — TOWNS. 


all of which lie in the neighborhood of the capital, and are used 
chiefly for wheat. Corn is ground or rubbed, for tortdlas, on the 
metate by the Indian women throughout Mexico ; and consequently 
but little of this kind of grain is ever brought to the mills. ‘There 
are five mines or mineral workings in the State, at Ystepéxi, Taléa, 
Teojomulco, Pefioles, and Las Péras, with ten smelting and amalga- 
mating establishments. | 

There are nine sea ports, roadsteads and anchorages in Bihiaes, 
the best of which are Tehuantepec, Huatulco, Escondido, Chaca- 
hua, and Jamiltepec. 

Corn, chile, agave, cotton, coffee, sugar, cacao, vanes iia C0, 
cochineal, wax, honey, and a ome quantity of indigo, are. the 
staple Beativetians of this State. Nearly all the fruits which we 
have already described as growing in the State of Vera Cruz, are 
produced here abundantly, and of excellent quality. 

The State is estimated as containing, on an average of years — 

44,106 : 5 : . Horses. 
18,4388 . : A ‘ . Mules. 
10,420 : . ‘ ‘ Asses. 


LTASLS: %. ; : f . Neat cattle. 
213,156 : : : 5 Sheep. 
158,009 . : ; : . Goats. 


47,947 : : : . Hogs. 


Total, 663,600 head of cattle. 
The worth of which is calculated, in the home market, at $3,332,757. 


Gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, rock salt, Jimestone, gyp- 
sum, &c., are found in Oajaca. In the thirty-nine years between 
January, 1787, and March, 1826, the official registers show a pro- 
duct in the State of 4,820 marks of gold, and 544,257 marks of 
silver ; and in the five years from March, 1826, to the end of 1830, 
95 marks of gold, and 21,701 of silver. But these sums must not 
be regarded as perfect indications of the absolute product of Oajaca, 
inasmuch as its proximity to the sea, and the facilities for smuggling 
in the lonely districts of the west coast have no doubt enabled the 
trading community to export a large portion of the real avails of 
the mines, which, of course, never appear in the authentic registers 
and returns of the State. 


The chief towns and villages of this State are: Oajaca, the capi-- 


tal; Guayapa or Huazapa, Talistaca, Santa Maria del Tule, 'Tlaco- 
chahuaya, Teutitlan del Valle, 'Tlacolula, Mitla, the ancient Leoba ; 


«>t eee 


ANCIENT REMAINS—MITLA. 213 


San Dionisio, Totolapa, San Carlos, Villa de Nejapa, Quijechapa, 
Quiegolani, Tequisistlan, Villa de Jalapa, Tlapalcatepec, Tehaun- 
tepec, San Francisco de la Mar, Petapa, Juchuitan, Niltepec, 
Yshuatan, Zanatepec, Tepanatepec, Xoro or Xojocatlan, Cuylapa, 
Zachila, the ancient Teozapotlan; San Bartolomeo de Zapéche, 
Zimatlan, Villa de Santa Anna, Chilateca, Santa Cruz Mistepec, 
San Juan Elotepec, Etla, San Juan del Estado, San Pablo Huizo 
or Guajolotitlan, Ejutla, Ocotlan, Chichicapa, Ayoquesco, Miahuat- 
lan, Pochutla, Santa Cruz de Huatulco, Juchatengo Tonamaca, 
Jamiltepec, Acatepec, Juquila, Sacatepeéc, Santa Maria Istapa, Teo- 
jomulco, Huajuapan, Justlahuaca, Chicahuastla, Achintla, Teita, 
Villa de Teposcolula, Talaxiaco, Santa Maria Chimalapa, Yanguit- 
lan, Los Pueblos de Almoloyas, San Miguel Chimalapa Nochistlan, 
Tilantongo, Xaltepec, 'Teutitlan del Camino, San Antonio de los 
Cues, Tecomavaca, Quiotepec, Cuicatlan, San Pedro Chiezapotl, 
Donomingullo, Coyula, Teutila, Villalta, Zoochila, Zolaga, Quet- 
zaltepec, Totontepec, Chuapan, Chinantla, Istlan. 


Ancient REMAINS IN OasAca. 
MITLA. 


About ten leagues from the capital, on the road leading to Te- 
huantepec, are the remains of what antiquarians have styled the 
sepulchral palaces of Mitla, lying in the midst of a rocky granitic 
region, and surrounded by sad and sombre scenery. According to 
tradition, these edifices were erected by the Zapotecs, as palaces 
and sepulchres for their princes. It is asserted that at the death of 
members of the royal family, their bodies were laid in the vaults 
beneath, while the sovereign and his relatives retired to mourn the 
loss of the departed scion in the chambers above these solemn 
sepulchres, which were screened from the public eye by dark and 
silent groves. 

Another tradition declares that these edifices were the abodes of a 
sect of priests, whose duty it was to dwell in seclusion and offer ex- 
piatory sacrifices for the royal dead who reposed in the vaults 
beneath. 

The village of Mitla was called Miguitlan, signifying, in the 
Mexican tongue, a place of sadness; while by the Zapotecs it was 
named Leoba, or ‘“‘ the tomb.”’ 

The palaces or tombs of Mitla, form three edifices, symmetrically 
arranged in an extremely romantic site; the principal and best pre- 
served edifice has a front of nearly one hundred and fifty feet. A 


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Seale of Varas. 


RUINS AT MITLA. 


THE PALACE —TOMBS— ANTIQUARIAN SPECULATIONS. 215° 


stair-way through a dark shaft leads to a subterranean apartment of 
one hundred feet in length, by thirty in width, whose walls are cov- 
ered with Grecian ornaments similar to those on the exterior of the 
edifice, as shown in the plate. ‘These external walls are said to be 
decorated with labyrinthine figures, formed by a mosaic of small por- 
phyritic stones, and we recognize in them the same designs which 
are admired in the ancient vases, falsely called Etruscan, and on 
the frieze of the old temple usually assigned to the god Redicolus, 
which lies near the grotto of Egeria at Rome. 

But the objects which chiefly distinguish the architectural remains 
of Mitla from all other Mexican antiquities are six porphyritic 
columns, which support the ceiling of a vast saloon. These singu- 
lar columns, —almost the only ones found in the New World, — 
evince the extreme infancy of art;—they have neither bases nor 
capitals, and are cut in a gradually tapering shape from a solid 
stone, more than fifteen feet in length. 

The distribution of the apartments in this extraordinary edifice 
presents some striking analogies with the monuments of Upper 
Egypt, described by Denon and the savants who composed the 
institute at Cairo. Don Pedro de Laguna, who examined them 
carefully many years ago, discovered on their walls some curious 
paintings of sacrifices and martial trophies. In order to form an 
idea of the almost Cyclopean style of architecture, we may remark 
the extraordinary dimensions of the stones above the entrances to 
the principal halls. Mr. Glennie states that one of these masses is 
eighteen feet eight inches long, four feet ten inches broad, and three 
feet six inches thick. A second is nineteen feet four inches long, 
four feet ten and a half inches broad, and three feet nine inches 
thick, whilst a third is nineteen feet six inches long, four feet ten 
inches broad, and three feet four inches thick. The antiquarian 
will not fail to observe, that there is some similarity between the 
exterior of these Oajacan remains and those which have been un- 
covered and described in Yucatan, by Stephens, during his second 
expedition. It is not improbable that an intercourse existed be- 
tween the inhabitants of these districts, prior to the Spanish Con- 
quest. We believe that these architectural remains and nearly all 
of those in Yucatan, Chiapas and Guatemala, were the abodes and 
temples of the Indians who dwelt in Mexico and the adjacent coun- 
tries when Grijalva and Cortéz first landed on our continent. The 
distance from Oajaca, through Chiapas and Tabasco, to Yucatan is 
not too great to have prevented even a rapid communication from 


Mitla to Uxmal, or Palenque. The reader will recollect that the 
2B 


216 CONNECTION OF MEXICAN REMAINS. 


realm of Montezuma is alleged to have extended to near the pre- 


sent limits of the Republic of Central America; nor will he forget 
with what rapidity the well trained Indian couriers of the Emperor 
passed over the three hundred intervening miles of mountain, plain 
and valley, between Vera Cruz and the Valley of Mexico, in order 
to inform their sovereign of the Spaniards’ arrival and their leader’s 
determination to visit the Aztec Court. At Cozumel, and else- 
where in Yucatan, the earliest Spanish adventurers were struck by 
the architecture of the edifices which were inhabited by the Indians. 
In their letters and narratives they always speak of these “ buildings 
of stone and lime”’ as indicating civilization. The Indian deities 
were, at that time, unquestionably, worshipped in them. At Cho- 
lula, Tlascala, and Tenochtitlan or Mexico, as well as at Tezcoco, — 
pyramids, dwellings, palaces, walls, streets, causeways, were all 
built of stone cemented by mortar, and many of these objects were 
profusely ornamented. ‘There can be no doubt of these facts, for 
they were attested at the time by numerous witnesses, while many 
of the material relics of that age have descended even to the pre- 
sent time, and may still be inspected in the capital of the Republic. 
Why, then, should we hesitate to believe that a vast chain of civil- 
ized, intelligent and afhliated nations, co-existed on the central part 
of this continent in the sixteenth century, and that the ruined cities, 
temples and pyramids which are spread from the waters of the Gila 
as far south as Peru and Chili, and whose wonderful remains are 
now gradually unearthed by the industry of antiquarians, are the 
architectural fragments of their national grandeur ? 

We do not conceive it necessary to throw back the Indian archi- 
tects into the gloom of antiquity, long anterior to the arrival of the 
Spaniards. There is a natural yearning in the human mind for the 
mystery with which a vague, indefinite epoch, surrounds ruins that 
are accidentally discovered. But this is a poetical sentiment, rather 
than a fair starting point in archaiological researches ; and, in spite 
of the national vanity which might be gratified by proving that 
the aboriginal civilization of our continent was as old as that of 
Egypt, we shall adhere to the belief that Mitla, Palenque, Uxmal 
and Quemada were inhabited by the builders or their descendants, 
whilst the thrones of Mexico and Peru were occupied by Monte- 
zuma and Atahualpa. 


\ QUIOTEPEC, OR CERRO DE LAS JUNTAS. oti 


QuUIOTEPEC, OR CERRO DE LAS JUNTAS. 


In 1844, an examination was made by order of the Governor of 
Oajaca of the ancient remains situated near the village of Quiotepec, 
about thirty-two leagues north from the capital of Oajaca. ‘These 
ruins are found on the Cerro de las Juntas, or Hill of the Union, 
so called from its vicinity to the junction of the rivers Quiotepec 
and Salado. 

The eminence is covered in almost every direction with remains 
of military works of a defensive character, calculated to protect the 
dwellings erected on the hill, and the extensive temple and palace, 
whose massive ruins still crown the summit. ‘These remains are 
said to resemble those of Chicocomoc or Quemada, in the State of 
Zacatécas, which will be fully described in our notice of that portion 
of Mexico. ‘The similarity consists in the style of the architecture, 
and the evident mingling of defence and worship. ‘There is no re- 
semblance, however, to the remains found in Yucatan as described 
by Stephens, Catherwood and Norman, where the designs are all 
highly ornamental, denoting a higher state of luxury, taste and 
progress ia civilization. The teocalli or temple of Quiotepec and 
that of Chicocomoc or Quemada are both pyramidal, like most of 
the Aztec religious structures; but the architectural style, generally, 
at the former place, is rather more sumptuous than at Quemada. ! 

Besides these remains, there are many others in the State of 
Oajaca, which are still inadequately known or described, such for 
instance, as the turmuli and pyramids at Montealban, two leagues 
south-west from Oajaca ; — the relics of many strong-holds ; — the 
turmuli at Zachila ; — the ruins at Coydla and at San Juan de los 
Cués. 

In the museum of the University of Mexico, and in the private 
collection of the late Ex-Conde del Pefiasco, we found some re- 
markable figures chiselled from a finely grained sand stone, two of 
which are represented in the succeeding pages. They were found 
in the State of Oajaca. Their use or their symbolical character 
have never been accurately detected; but in the last of the two we 
may observe quite a remarkable resemblance to some of the idols 
still to be seen in the temples of India. 


1 See Museo Mejicano, vol. 2d, p. 329, for lithographic sketches of the palace and 
temple, and their monuments. See also vol. Ist of the same work, p. 401 ; and vol. 
3d id., p. 135, for descriptions of Zapotec remains ; and vol. Ist id., p. 246, for an 
imperfect account of military remains, fortifications, &c. &c., near Guiengola, near 
‘Tehuantepec 


BE was eae : \ 


Cod 


FIGURE FROM OAJACA. 


&" Ca 


FIGURES FROM OAJSACA. 


CHAPTER IA: 


PUEBLA — DIVISIONS — PRODUCTIONS — FACTORIES. — RIVER — 
STREAMS — PUEBLA DE LOS ANGELES — CATHEDRAL — TOWNS 
— MINES, QUARRIES —— MOUNTAINS — POPOCATEPETL — ATLIXCO 
— OLIVARES — ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN — THE CRATER — 
ELEVATION.— PYRAMID OF CHOLULA—VISIT TO THE PYRAMID 

_ CORRECT DIMENSIONS.— TERRITORY OF TLASCALA — HISTORY 
— POSITION — SIZE— PRODUCTIONS —TOWNS. 


THE STATE OF, PULELA: 


Nearly all of this State lies in the torrid zone, occupying a por- 


tion of the table land, and stretching westwardly down the slopes ~ 


of the Sierra Madre to the Pacific Ocean, between the parallels 
of 16° 17’ and 20° 40/ north latitude. From the mouth of the 
river Tecoyame to Mextitlan, it is 126 leagues long, and from 
Tehuacan to Mecameca, 53 leagues broad. It contains an area 
of 2,700 square leagues. On the north it is bounded by the 
State of Queretaro, north-easterly by the State of Vera Cruz, 
easterly by Oajaca, westwardly by Mexico and south-westwardly, 
for 28 leagues, by the Pacific Ocean. ‘The last enumeration of in- 
habitants to which we have access, assigned 954,000 individuals to 
the State of Puebla, in the year 1832; but the estimate made for 
the basis of a call of congress in 1842, gave it only 661,902. 

This State is divided into 25 partidos, or districts, the chief of 
which are Atlixco, Guauchinango, Ométepéc, Puebla, Tepéaca, 
Tehuacan de las Granadas, Tlapan, and Zacatlan. It possesses 5 
cities and towns, 126 parishes, 590 villages, 412 hactendas or planta- 
tions, and 857 large and small ranchos or farms. The surface of 
this State is divided between mountains, vallies, plains or low lands; 
and produces corn, wheat, barley, chile, maguey, beans and all the 
hardier, together with some of the southern fruits and plants. The 
wheat flour of Puebla is celebrated for its excellence, and has some- 
times been exported to Havana and South America. 

In the neighborhood of Oajaca cochineal is sometimes produced ; 
and on the low lands towards the western coast, cotton, rice, and 
small quantities of coffee and sugar are cultivated. ‘The Llanos de 
Apam, in the neighborhood of the State of Mexico are celebrated 
for their fertility, and especially renowned for the excellence of the 
pulque, produced from the maguey or Agave Americana. 


\ 


RIVER— STREAMS -— PUEBLA DE LOS ANGELES. 921 


Nearly four-fifths of the real property of Puebla either belongs or 
is hypothecated to the church and to hospitals, and consequently 
the agriculture of the State is not as well managed as if the land 
belonged to independent farmers, who derived their wealth directly 
from the soil. Great poverty prevails among the lower classes, and 
their sad condition is generally attributed in Mexico to the mis- 
management of real estate by the clergy. 

The water power in the neighborhood of the city of Puebla has 
given a stimulus to manufactories, and the reader will find in our 
chapter upon that branch of Mexican industry some interesting 
statistical facts showing the progress made by the inhabitants of this 
portion of the Republic. 

The only river of any importance in Puebla is the Rio de Tlas- 
cala or Papagallo, which rises in the table lands, and runs southerly 
from the village of Ayutla to the Pacific. The Pascaqualca, 'Tacu- 
napa, Tecoyama, and the San José are insignificant streamlets along 
the coast. 


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Crvy OF PUEBLA. 


The chief cities of this State are Puebla or Puebla de los Ange- 
les — the ‘‘ City of the Angels,’? — which is the capital and the seat 
of the State government. It is a beautiful town, lying in the midst 


222 CATHEDRAL— TOWNS — MINES — QUARRIES. 


of a fruitful plain bounded by the mountains, and shut in at the west 
by the gigantic peaks of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Broad, 
clean and well paved streets cross it at suitable distances. The 
houses are large, convenient and neat, and numerous churches for- 
ever send forth the music of their bells. A beautiful public walk, 
planted with rows of trees, runs along a small stream on the out- 
skirts of the city; and an Alameda, of exceeding beauty, hes oppo- 
site the extensive pile of San Francisco on the west. In the centre © 
_of the town is a large well paved public square, surrounded by por- 
tales or arches, similar to those of Bologna, in Italy, while in its 
centre is the massive cathedral whose wealth is renowned among 
the Roman Catholic churches of America. A splendid and weighty 
chandelier, composed of gold and silver, weighing altogether seve- 
ral tons, depends from the dome, whilst the figures of saints, the 
tops of altars, and the recesses of chapels, gleam, on State occasions 
with a display of precious metals and jewels which is perhaps une- 
qualled even by the cathedral of Mexico or the sanctuary of Guada- 
lupe. There are other establishments in Puebla belonging to the 
Franciscan and Augustin monks, and several churches, which are 
celebrated for their elegance, comfort and wealth. The Palace of 
the Bishop, in the vicinity of the cathedral, is a massive edifice, 
containing a library of many thousand volumes in a saloon 200 feet 
long by 40 broad. 

The other towns of this State are: — CHoLuLa, adjacent to the 
remains of the Pyranud of Cholula, which will be subsequently no- 
ticed ;—-ATLixco; GuAUCHINANGO, in the northern valley of the 
State, where the Indians still indulge in their ancient sport of the 
Juégo del Volader or flying game ;— TEHUACAN DE LAS GRANA- 
DAS, containing near 6,000 inhabitants; Trpraca or TEPEyAcac, 
where Cortéz laid the foundations of a city which he called “ Segu- 
ra de la Frontéra;’? —Hvasocineo or Hurxorzinco; Chiautla, 
Tlapan, Tlacotepec, Amozoqué, San Martin, Nopaluca, Acajete, 
Ojo de Agua. 

In the eighteenth century various mines of gold and silver were 
wrought in the old Intendencia de Puebla, at Yxtacmaztillan, Te- 
mistla, and Alatlanquitepec in the district of San Juan de los Llanos, 
as well as at Tetéla de Xonotla and at Zacatlan; but none of these 
are at present productive. Quarries of fine marble exist at Totamé- 
huacan and Tecali, two and seven leagues distant from the capital. 
Limestone is found in quantities, and a beautiful transparent ala- 
baster is also procured, which is used for windows in the library, 
museum and churches. If the transportation of these weighty arti- 


‘ 


‘SNVIGNI DNIATH 


(UOACVIOA TAA ODUNI) 


. 


KG 


MOUNTAINS — POPOCATEPETL— ATLIXCO—OLIVARES. 223 


cles were not so expensive in Mexico, this alabaster might be pro- 
fitably exported to Europe, where its extreme purity and clearness 
would probably ensure its preference to all indigenous qualities. 
mxtensive salt works are carried on at Chila, Xicotlan, Ocotlan and 
Zapotlan. 

Some of the most remarkable geological characteristics df the 
Mexican Republic are found in the three celebrated mountains of 
Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, and Malinche or Matlacueye, which lie 
in the-State of Puebla. The latter of these, sometimes called La 
dofia Maria, lies between the volcanoes .of Puebla and those of Ori- 
zaba and Perote, but does not require special mention except as 
forming a striking and picturesque feature in the landscape. But 
the other two deserve our special notice. 


ASCENT OF THE VOLCANO OF POPOCATEPETL. 


The mountains of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl border the State 
of Puebla on the west. The following account of the ascent of the 
former of these gigantic volcanoes is founded on the journal pub- 
Jished in Spanish in May, 1827, by Messieurs Frederick and Wil- 
liam Glennie, who were in the service of the British United Mining 
Company, and: Mr. John Taylour, a merchant of the city of Mexico. 

On the 16th of April, 1827, the party left the capital early in 
the day, accompanied by their sevant José Quintana, and, pro- 
vided with barometer, sextant, chronometer, telescope, and other 
instruments, reached the village of Ameca, on the western slope 
of the mountain, where they halted for the might. 

On the 17th they continued their route, following the road to 
Puebla which leads through the gap of the two mountains, intend- 
ing to go to Atlixco. In the highest part of the gap they took the 
road to the right which is cailed ‘“‘ de los neveros,”’ (those who pro- 
cure ice for the capital,) and having reached the limit of vegetation, 
which according to their barometrical measurements is 12,693 
English feet above the level of the sea, they met with some men 
who informed them, that in this direction they could not reach the 
summit, nor prosecute their way to Atlixco on account of the great 
quantity of sand. With this information they returned to the road 
they had left, and reached the village of St. Nicolas de los Ranchos. 

On the following day they continued towards Atlixco. The road 
here edges along the eastern side of the mountain, skirting an ex- 
tensive district covered with large rocks and loose stones. Having 
understood that the village of Tochimilco is nearest to the volcano, 


they determined to go thither to obtain imformation relative to 
2C 


224 ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 


the adventure. The Alcalde Don F. Olivares, who, ‘though the 
owner of Popocatepetl, had never reached the summit, gave them 
all the information he possessed, offered to accompany them, and 
procured guides and carriers for their instruments. They appointed 
the next day to go to his Hacienda de St. Catalina, which is at the 
very foot of the principal mountain and belongs to that estate. 

On the 19th they proceeded to the hacienda, where they were 
soon joined by Sefior Olivares, who was prevented by some busi- 
ness from accompanying them any farther. He furnished them a 
guide who conducted them through a thick forest, to the highest 
limit of the pines, which they found to be 12,544 feet above the 
ocean. Here they passed the night. At midnight it rained, which 
was soon afterwards followed by a severe hoar frost. 

On the 20th of April, contemplating to reach the summit this 
day, they distributed the instruments among the carriers, and 
mounted on the mules, began the ascent at half after three in 
the morning by the light of the moon. After travelling a short dis- 
tance they left all vegetation, and entered a district of loose stones 
and sand, which although hardened considerably by the rain, greatly 
fatigued the mules. In this manner they ascended on the south- 
west side of the mountain, until half past six when they could pro- 
ceed no further with the mules, as much because they were too 
fatigued, as on account of the steepness of the volcano’s side. 
They therefore dismounted, and abandoning the mules, gave the 
barometer in charge to Quintana. They resumed their ascent through 
a soil composed of loose sand and stones, with many fragments 
of pumice stone, being desirous of reaching some rocks which ap- 
peared to be connected with the summit. Here, however, the 
difficulties commenced; the acclivity was very steep, the footing so 
loose that every step they made forward they slipped back nearly the 
same distance; and the thinness of the air fatigued them so much 
that they could not advance more than fifteen or twenty steps without 
resting. In this manner they proceeded about half a mile, until they 
reached the rocks, where they waited for the Indians who followed 
more slowly. During this time the thermometer stood at 28° of 
Fahrenheit. The sky was perfectly clear, but a dense stratum of 
vapor rested on the horizon, which prevented them from perceiving 
any object, and made it appear as if they were in the midst of an 
ocean. At 8 o’clock A. M. they first saw the sun. As soon as 
the Indians arrived, they took a light breakfast, and continued 
ascending among large loose stones, which have rolled from the 
summit, ani, arrested by each other in their course, have formed a 


\ 


ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 9295 


kind of zone, so lightly supported however, that the slightest touch 
sets them in motion. This naturally alarmed the Indians, who de- 
clined going any farther; but by persuasions and promises they 
succeeded in getting them to advance. Seeing, however, that the 
-oad was becoming rather worse, all further means of persuasion 
to induce them to proceed began to fail. ‘They endeavored to as- 
cend through a gulley which they had perceived on their left; but 
the way thither was very difficult, and was rendered more perilous 
by clouds which prevented their distinguishing any thing. Here 
the Indians entirely refused to stir any further, and having given 
them part of the provisions, they were sent with the baggage to 
wait at the place where they had encamped the night before. 
This circumstance very much discouraged the travellers. Being 
left without instruments they had to relinquish the physical and 
astronomical observations which they had proposed to make, and 
thereby missed the principal object of their journey. ‘They never- 
theless determined to persevere, for the purpose of examining well 
the situation, and noting such points as might facilitate any subse- 
quent attempt undertaken with better preparations. 

Soon after this the clouds dispersed, and they reached a passage 
which was very steep and covered with loose stones, and through 
which they ascended with much labor, extending their line so 
as to prevent the stones rolling on those below. The fatigue and 
the pain in their knees, obliged them to rest every eight or ten 
paces. After an hour’s travelling in this manner they reached a body 
of basaltic rock, which being very steep they could not surmount 
but with great difficulty, and only by leaping from one rock to the 
other, at great risk. After this they got into a bed of loose sand, 
(apparently pumice stone reduced to dust,) and ascended to a very 
high rock, which from Mexico appears like a speck. The rock is a 
great mass of compact black basalt forming some imperfect pillars, 
the fissures being filled with solid ice. 

They observed from time to time small stones falling upon 
them, as if thrown from above, and began to experience head- 
ache and nausea, which affected Quintana more than the others. 
The barometrical observation here showed an elevation of 16,895 
English feet above the ocean. After taking some slight refresh- 
ments, and resting about an hour, they continued their ascent. 

It is impossible to detail the particulars of the frequent difficul- 
ties and risks encountered until the explorers reached the sandy ac- 
clivity which forms the dome of the mountain, and the firmness 
with which they overcame them. At this point they took another 


926 THE CRATER—ELEVATION. 


short rest—fancying themselves very near the end of their labors, 
and deceived by the great rarefaction of the air, which made objects 
appear much nearer than they really were, they forgot what they 
had already undergone, and Mr. Glennie was entirely taken up 
with the prospect of soon putting his barometer in operation on 
the very summit. At this time Quintana who had smoked a good 
deal and was otherwise much fatigued, complained of excessive 
headache and fell down exhausted. They concluded that at these 
great elevations smoking is as impracticable as the use of ardent 
spirits. The servant was vainly encouraged to proceed, and finding 
it impossible, they directed him to await their return where he was. 

They had before them a smooth expanse of sand, which on their 
left was covered, from the summit down, with ice or crystallized 
snow, forming a great variety of cubic and prismatic figures. Con- 
tinuing their ascent along the edge of this snow, they heard a noise 
like distant thunder, and concluding that it was raining somewhere, 
they proceeded about a league, making frequent halts, being greatly 
distressed with violent pains in the head and knees, nausea, and 
difficulty of respiration. They had passed the whole day in 
absolute solitude; encountering neither plant, bird nor even the 
least insect. All they saw around them, were fractured rocks, that 
had undergone fusion, blistered fragments, and heaps of rub- 
bish, sand and ashes. While contemplating these images of de- 
struction, they unexpectedly, about five o’clock P. M., arrived at 
the border of an immense abyss, throwing up a shower of stones, 
with a noise similar to that produced by the waves of the sea beat- 
ing against a wall. Natural emotion and surprise obliged them to 
recede some paces. Their hair stood on end—their shoulders fell — 
and they felt a sudden nauseating emptiness of the stomach. With- 
out being able to speak, they could but look at each other, until this 
sensation of sickness and horror had subsided. They then returned 
to observe the crater, and examined the barometer, whose mer- 
curial column measured only 15.63 English inches, while the ther- 
mometer attached to it was at 39° and the detached one 33° Fah- 
renheit. They then sat down to contemplate the scene around 
them, to take notes, and make drawings. 

They observed that most of the stones which were thrown up in 
the eruptions, fell within the crater, the rest fell over the south side. 
The dull sound which was constantly heard within increased from 
time to time, and terminated with an explosion, at which time 
stones, sand, and ashes were thrown up. ‘Those eruptions were 
frequent — some stronger than others. From various places in the 


THE CRATER—ELEVATION. Dap Ae 


mterior and near the edge of the crater, arose small columns of 
smoke, the principal of which were three on the east side, and at a 
considerable depth within the crater. The crater itself has the ap- 
pearance of a large funnel, whose sides are but little inclined, and 
the bottom of which is not visible. The sides are furrowed by nu- 
merous gulleys which descend from around the mouth of the crater, 
having the appearance of the radii of a circle towards the centre. 
There are three distinct rings, or excavations, which divide the 
crater into four zones of different dimensions, the largest being that 
nearest the mouth, and which is of solid rock, the others appear to 
be composed of sand. The snow occupies only the exterior part of 
' the summit, and that part of the interior of the crater which faces to 
the north, where its limits cannot be discovered. The mouth of 
the volcano is nearly circular, about a mile in diameter, and ap- 
pears much lower on the eastern than on the western side. The 
lip of the southern side is very thin, and so broken that it seems 
impossible to walk on it, while the northern part, on the contrary, 
is broad and more even. 

On account of a thick stratum of mist by which they were sur- 
rounded, the intrepid travellers could only see the summit of the 
peak of Orizaba, and the neighboring snow-capped mountains to 
the north. 

Having completed the observations, and night approaching, they 
descended by the same way towards the place where they had left 
the servant, with the intention of passing the night there and return- 
ing to the summit next morning; but finding the man in a high 
fever with a violent pulse and headache, they resolved on descend- 
ing. ‘To relieve him, he was carried over the most difficult places, 
and finding it impossible to descend by the same path by which 
they had ascended in the day, they took at once that bend of the 
mountain which is called ‘‘de los Neveros;” and which, although 
very steep, is composed of loose sand through which they descended 
very rapidly. It was after night when they arrived at the limit of 
vegetation, but having taken a different direction, they did not strike 
the plaee where they expected to meet the Indians. They made a 
large fire as a signal, but the Indians did not make their appear- 
ance; and on the following morning, the 21st of April, separating 
to the right and left, and after shouting, they soon rallied the In- 
dians. The reunited party descended to the rancho de la Vaqueria, 
and from this they passed through the village of Atlauca; at eight 
in the evening reached Ameco, and on the 23d of April returned 
to Mexico. 


228 PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 


Longitude east Elevation above the 


Names of places. N. Latitude from Mexico. level of the ocean. 
Ameco a village 19° 7! 40" 0° 23/ 30” 8,216 Eng. feet. 
St. Nicolas de los Ranchos 19° 4/ 21” 0° 32/30” 8,087 do. 
Tochimilco e 5 : ; : j : 6,930 do. 
Superior limit of pines . . ; : » 12,544 do. 
Limit of all vegetation . ; i ; F 12,693 do. 
Picacho de S. Galen: : . 16,895 do. 
The most elevated border of the orten of ie 

volcano of Popocatepetl . : : : 17,884 do. 
Rancho de la Vaqueria : : : . . 10,784 do. 


REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY IN THE STATE OF PUEBLA. 
THE PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 


The vast plain of Puebla, separated from the Valley of Mexico 
by its gigantic chain of bordering mountains, is full of interesting 
associations and studies for the antiquarian; but, among all of the 
sites signalized in the history of the Aztecs or of the Spanish Con- 
quest, no one is more generally sought by the traveller than the 
Pyramid of Cholula. Its lofty remains lie about three leagues west- 
ward from the city of Puebla, and are easily reached by a pleasant 
ride over the piain. The pyramid was originally built of sun dried 
bricks, or, advbes, rising in four stories connected by terraces. 
Many years ago, in cutting a newroad from Mexico towards 
Puebla, it became necessary to cross a portion of the base of this 
pyramid, and, in the course of the excavation, a square chamber 
was opened, which was found to be constructed of stone with a 
roof supported by cypress beams. Some idols, carved in basalt, a 
number of painted earthen vases, and two bodies were found in this 
cavity, but as no care was taken of these relics by the discoverers, 
and as their explorations were not prosecuted deeper into the bowels 
of the gigantic mound, the world is now quite as ignorant of its 
ancient uses as it was during the possession of the country by the 
Spaniards. The most recent publication upon the subject of Cho- 
lula by Sefior Gondra, the Curator of the National Museum, in the 
University of Mexico, merely repeats the thrice told tales of the last 
century. 

The top of this pyramid is reached by paths that climb its sides 
amid masses of debris and groves of bushes which have driven their 


1 This peak which is visible from Mexico, has been thus denominated in honor 
of Mr. Wil iam Glennie, who was the chief promoter of the expedition. 


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VISIT TO THE PYRAMID. 929 


roots deeply between the fissures of the bricks. The level summit 
yrotected by a parapet wall, —and once the shrine of Quetzalcoatl— 
the “‘ Feathered Serpent,” or ‘‘ God of the Air,’’—1is now adorned 
with a small dome-crowned chapel, surrounded with cypresses and 
dedicated to the Virgin of Remedios; while, from all parts of the 
eminence, a magnificent panorama of the fruitful plain spreads out 
at the feet of the spectator. 


The following extract from a communication by an officer of our 
army, in 1847, during the invasion of Mexico, contains some inter- 
esting facts, and corrects scientifically the measurements of the 
pyramid which were made by Baron Humboldt: 

All the mornings of this elevated region, even in the rainy sea- 
son, are bright and charming; the sun rises in unclouded splendor, 
gilding one of the most magnificent landscapes the imagination can 
conceive, whilst the atmosphere is so pure and elastic that it is a 
positive pleasure to breathe it. On such a morning, in company 
with the 4th regiment of artillery, acting as infantry, and a squad- 
ron of horse, we sallied from the city through the garita of Cholula, 
and soon found ourselves in the extensive plain skirting the base of 
the volcanoes of Puebla—Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Before 
us glittered in the morning’s sun their snow-capped summits; on 
our right rose the Malinche, with its craggy crest partially envel- 
oped in a wreath of mist; whilst behind us, in the far distance, 
towered the indistinct form of the Orizaba—that well-known land- 
mark of the seaman, that serves to guide him in calm and in storm, 
hundreds of miles along the Mexican coast. The nearer landscape 
was as soft and picturesque as its more distant features were grand 
and sublime. <A green meadow or prairie extended around us for 
some miles in every direction, dotted with villas and haciendas, and 
relieved by occasional patches of cultivation, and avenues and clus- 
ters of the beautiful shade willow. Herds of cattle and horses 
grazed as quietly on the surrounding estates as though ‘ grim-vis- 
aged war”’ had long since ‘‘ smoothed his wrinkled front,”’ and our 
military escort, as it wound its way over the fair landscape, with 
glittering arms and glancing Banners, seemed more like a holyday 
procession than a band of stern veterans so recently from the con- 
flict, and so soon to enter it again. A ride of an hour and a quarter, 
which our horses, as they snuffed the morning breeze and scented 
the fresh grass of the meadows, seemed to enjoy as much as their 
riders, brought us to the base of the far-famed pyramid, which, inde- 
pendently of its historical recollection, and the great interest attached 


836 CORRECT DIMENSIONS. 


to it as a work of art, forms one of the most picturesque features of 
the landscape. Ata short distance it presents the appearance of a 
natural mound, covered with a luxuriant growth of trees and shrub- 
bery, and is surmounted by a simple chapel, whose belfry towers 
some eighty feet above the pyramid. A road winds round the 
pyramid from base to summit, up which we passed on horseback. 
This road is cut into the pyramid, in some places, six or eight feet, 
and here one sees the first evidence of the artificial construction of 
the Jatter. It is built of adobes, or sun-dried brick, interspersed 
with small fragments of stone—porphyry and limestone. Its dimen- 
sions, as stated by Humboldt, are: base 1,060, elevation 162 feet ; 
but its altitude is much greater. On the day of our visit, Lieutenant 
Semmes, of the navy, who had provided himself with a pocket sex- 
tant and tape-line for the purpose, determined its altitude to be 205 
feet. As this measurement differed so widely from that of Hum- 
boldt, Lieut. S. requested Lieut. Beauregard, of the engineers, who 
visited the pyramid a few days afterwards, to test his observations ; 
which Lieut. B., using a longer base, did, making the altitude 203 
feet. These two observations, from different points, with different 
bases, and both with the sextant, show conclusively that Humboldt, 
who used a barometer, is in error. The mean of the two is 204 
feet, which we may henceforth regard as the true height of this ex- 
traordinary monument—being nearly half as great as that of the 
pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. The pyramid of Cholula is quad- 
rangular in form, and truncated—the area of the apex being 165 
feet square. On this area formerly stood a heathen temple, now 
supplanted by the Gothic church of our Lady of Remedios. The 
temple on this pyramid was, in the days of Cortéz, a sort of Mecca, 
to which all the surrounding tribes, far and near, made an annual 
pilgrimage, held a fair, and attended the horrible human sacrifices 
peculiar to their superstition. Besides this great temple, there were, 
as we learn from the letters of Cortéz to Charles V., and also from 
the simple diary of his doughty old Captain, Bernal Diaz, some 400 
others in the city, built around the base of the larger. The city 
itself contained 40,000 householders, and the whole plain was 
studded with populous villages. The plain is now comparatively a 
desert, and two or three thousand miserable leperos build their mud 
huts and practice their thievish propensities upon the site of the 
holy city. | 


TERRITORY OF TLASCALA—HISTORY, POSITION, SIZE. 23] 


Pit TER RALTPORY Or TLASCALA. 


The history of Mexico has ever held in sacred regard the 
region of this ancient republic, whence Cortéz and the Spaniards 
derive such eminent assistance in the conquest of the Aztec Em- 
pire. Immediately after that event it was erected into a province, 
under which character it was always regarded until the political 
emancipation of Mexico from Spain, and even after that event up 
to the period of the adoption of the Acta Constitutiva, when Tlas- 
cala was raised to the dignity of a State, as an integral part of the 
Mexican Republic. ‘The constitution, sanctioned on the 4th of Oc- 
tober, 1824, deferred defining absolutely the political character of 
this region; but on the 24th of November of the same year, it was 
constitutionally declared to be a Territory of the Confederation. 
When the Central Government was subsequently adopted, it was 
added, under the denomination of a district, to the Department of 
Mexico; but when the federal system was restored by the move- 
ment of the 6th of August, 1846, which was afterwards national- 
ized by the decree of the provisional government on the 22d of Au- 
gust of the same year, and confirmed by the sovereign congress on 
the 18th of May, 1847, Tlascala re-entered the federal association 
in its original character of a territory. 

Tlascala comprehends within its limits a superficial extent of four 
hundred square leagues, and contains one city, one hundred and 
nine villages, eighteen settlements, one hundred and sixty-eight 
haciendas or large estates, ninety-four ranchos or small farms, eight 
grist mills, two iron works, and one woollen factory. It is divided 
into the three partidos of Tlaxco, Huamantla and Tlascala, the lat- 
ter of which contains the capital town of the same name about seven 
leagues north of Puebla. The territory is of an oval form, lying be- 
tween forty minutes and one degree thirty-three minutes east longi- 
tude from Mexico, and nineteen degrees, and nineteen degrees forty- 
two minutes of north latitude. Its climate is mild and healthful, 
and its population, which in 1837, was rated at about eighty thou- 
sand, has been found to increase, on comparison of a number of 
years, about one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight annually, 
of which nine hundred and thirty-seven are males, and nine hundred 
and forty-one females. 

The productions of Tlascala are chiefly of a cereal character, but 
its genial climate and soil are capable of yielding the fruits of the 


tierras calientes, frias, and templadas. 
2D 


232 ' TOWNS. 


The capital town of TLascaLa is situated between two moun- 
tains, in 19° 16! of north latitude, and 58’ east longitude from 
Mexico, near the only stream of importance in the territory, known 
as the Rio Atoyac or Papagallo, under which name it passes through 
the State of Puebla on its way to the Pacific. The ancient numer- 
ous population of Tlascala is no longer found within its limits, and 
perhaps nct more than four or five thousand individuals now inhabit 
it. But the town is nevertheless handsome ;— its streets are regular ; 
its private houses, town hall, bishop’s palace and principal church 
are built in a style of tasteful architecture, while on the remains 
of the chief Teocalli of the ancient Tlascalans, a Franciscan con- 
vent has been built, which is perhaps one of the earliest ecclesiastical 
edifices in the republic. In the town itself and in its vicinity many 
relics and ruins of the past glory of Tlascala are still found by anti- 
quarians, but they have hitherto been undisturbed by foreign visiters 
and remain unnoticed by the natives. Huamantla and Tlaxco are the 
chief towns or villages in the partidos which bear their names. 


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C HeA Del BOR oy. 


STATE OF MEXICO—AREA — DIVISIONS — POPULATION —FEDERAL 
DISTRICT — VALLEY — HIGHWAYS — LAKES —— ZUMPANGO, CRIS- 
TOVAL, CHALCO, XOCHIMILCO, TEZCOCO— SALT-WORKS — CI- 
TIES — SAN AUGUSTIN — FESTIVAL — TEZCOCO — TACUBA — 
TOLUCA — CASCADE OF REGLA — TOWNS — VALLEY OF CUER- 
NAVACA—ACAPANTZINGO—ITS INDIAN ISOLATION—MINES IN 
THE STATE. 


THE STATE OF MEXICO. 


This State, which includes the national capital and the federal 
district, lies between 16° 34’ and 21° 7! of north latitude and 100°, 
17, 30” and 105°, 7', 30” W. longitude from Paris. It is bounded, 
west by the States of Guanajuato and Michoacan; south-west by 
the shores of the Pacific for 87 leagues; north by Queretaro; east 
by Puebla; and north-east by Vera Cruz. Its greatest breadth 
from east to west, from Chilapa on the boundaries of Puebla, to the 
haven of Zacatula, is, 104 leagues, and its extreme length from 
north to south, from Berdosas on the confines of Vera Cruz, to the 
west coast in the neighborhood of Acapulco and the boundary of 
Puebla in that direction, is, 124 leagues. The area of the State is 
5,842 square leagues, more than two-thirds of which are covered 
with mountains and spurs of mountains, interspersed with vallies 
lying between 6,500 and 7,500 feet above the level of the sea. 
The Wevada de Toluca is the only mountain of extraordinary eleva- 
tion in the State of Mexico, which breaks the uniformity of its lofty 
table lands. Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, on the eastern limit of 
the Valley of Mexico, belong, it will be recollected, to the State of 
Puebla. , 

The political divisions consist of eight districts, with 38 partidos, 
or cantons, and 183 ayuntimientos or municipalities, subdivided into 
about 450 cities, towns and villages, as well as into a great number 
of haciendas, and minor dependencies. 

Ist. The district of Acapulco, with the cantons of Acapulco, 
Técpan, Chilapa, Tixtla, and 13 municipalities. 


234 POPULATION — FEDERAL DISTRICT — VALLEY. 


2d. ‘The district of Cuernavaca, with the cantons of Cuernavaca, 
Ciudad Morelos or Cuautla de Amilpas, and Xonatepec, and 17 
municipalities. 

3d. The district of 'Tasco, with the cantons of Tasco, Axuchitlan, 
Teloloapan, Texupilco, Sultepec, Temascaltepec, and Zacualpan, 
with 18 ayuntimientos or municipalities. 

Ath. The district of Toluca, with the cantons of Toluca; Ixtla- 
huaca, ‘Tenango, Tenancingo, and 25 municipalities. 

5th. The district of Tlalpam, with the cantons of Tlalpam, 
Chalco, Tezcoco, Teotihuacan, Zumpango, Tlanepantla, Quautitlan 
and 49 municipalities. 

6th. The district of Tula, with the cantons of Tula, Huichapan, 
Actopan, Xilotepec, Ixmiquilpan, Zimapan, and 25 municipalities. 

7th. The district of Tulancingo, with the cantons of Tulancingo, 
Pachuca, Apam, and 15 municipalities. 

8th. The district of Huejutla, with the cantons of Huejutla, 
Mextitlan, Zacualtipan, Yahualica, and 21 municipalities. 

The population in these districts was estimated in 1842, accord- 
ing to Muhlenpfordt, at: 


Ist: Districts: , ‘ . » LOD 20 
Ddistiie® © i. 5 . : ; : 104,100 
aay nines : : ; . 187,444 
Atha 833s ; : 5 : : 255,119 
punyu ae : : : A : . 278,800 
Gis: 43%. ; : 4 : 241,539 
cla 48 ; ; ; : . 128,166 
Sthicr ak 100,855 


The call for seaereds in The ae éhanten the SopuE bn of the 
State at 1,389,502, to which if we add 10 per cent. for mcrease 
since that end we shall have a population at present of about 
1,528,452. 

The Federal District includes the city of Mexico, in the valley of 
that name, together with the towns and villages of Tacubaya, Cha- 
pultepec, Santa Fé, Tacuba, Guadalupe, Azcapotzalco, Los Reyes, 
St. Angel, Mixcoac, and Mexicalcingo. Its mhabitants may be 
estimated at 450,000,—about 200,000 of whom reside in the 
capital. 

The Valley of Mexico is in the midst of the ridges of the Mexi- 
can Sierras, at a height of 7,500 feet above the level of the ocean. 
It is oval in shape, and ona in on all sides by porphyritic moun- 
tains and eminences, from which the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and 
Iztaccihuatl, shoot up beyond the region of eternal snow. 


HIGHWAYS — LAKES — ZUMPANGO— CRISTOVAL. 935 


Its greatest length, from the mouth of the stream of Tenango in 
the lake of Chalco, to the foot of the Cerro de Sinéc, in the neigh- 
borhood of the canal Huehuetoca is 19} leagues, and its greatest 
breadth, from San Gabriel at Tezcoco, to the sources of the river 
Acapusalco at Quisquiluca, is 131 leagues. Its area is 2583 square 
leagues, 234 of which are covered by lakes. On the south, east, 
and west, the mountains maintain a probable average height of 
10,000 feet above the sea, while at the north their depression is 
considerable, and through the gaps and vallies the waters of the 
lakes are discharged towards the Gulf of Mexico. 

Six great highways centre in the capital, and leave it to traverse 
the principal districts of the confederacy. 

1st. The road to Acapulco on the west coast, which passes out 
of the valley over its southern rim of mountains at the point known 
as the Cruz del Marquez, about 2,284 feet above the city of Mex- 
ico, or 9,784 above the level of the sea. 

2d. The road to Toluca, by Tianguillo and Lerma. 

3d The road to Queretaro, Durango, &c. called El Camino de 
tierra adentro, which leads across the eminences at the north of the 
valley, by an elevation of about 100 feet only above the level of the 
lakes. This road is the highway for the internal trade of Mexico 
with the northern provinces. 

4th. The road to Pachuca and Real del Monte in the mining 
district, across the Cerro Ventoso. 

oth. The road to Puebla, across Bonaventura and the plains of 
Apam. , 

6th. The new road to Puebla and Vera Cruz, by Rio Frio and 
San Martin, across the northern shoulder of the voleano of Popoca- 
tepetl. It greatest elevation is at the barranca or ravine of Juanes, 
10,486 feet above the level of the sea. Besides the two last 
mentioned roads there is a third, between the volcanoes of Popoca- 
tepetl and Iztaccihuatl, by Tlamanalco, Ameca, La Cumbre, and 
Cruz del Correo, passing out of the valley of Mexico into those of 
Cholula and Puebla. 

Five lakes are embosomed in the valley in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of Mexico:— 

Ist. The lake of Zumpango, is the northernmost, and has an area 
of about 1} square leagues. A dam, called La Calzada de la Cruz del 
Rey, divides it into two basins, the westernmost of which is known 
as the Laguna de Zilaltepec, and the easternmost, the Laguna de 
Coyotepec. It is 26 feet higher than the mean level of the lake of 


236 CHALCO, XOCHIMILCO, TEZCOCO—SALT-WORKS. 


Tezcoco, and supplies the rivers Pachuca and Quautitlan. The 
little village of Zumpango lies on its northern shore. 

2d. The lake of San Cristoval is immediately south of the pre- 
ceding, and is likewise divided by a dam into two basins, the 
northern called the Laguna de Xaltocan and the southern San Cris- 
toval. In the first of these divisions are the villages of Xaltocan 
and Tomantla, built upon islands. This lake is twelve feet eight 
inches higher than that of Tezcoco, and its superficial area nearly 4 
square leagues. On its shore lies the village of San Cristoval. 

3d. The lake of Chalco spreads out at the southern extremity of 
the valley, and contains the village of Jico built on an island in, its 
bosom. It is divided from the lake of Xochimilco by a dam, or cal- 
zada, across which the road passes from 'Tuliagualco to San Fran- 
cisco Tlaltenango. 

Ath. The lake of Xochimilco is separated, as we have described, 
from that of Chalco; both of these basins cover a superficial area of 
6} square leagues; and their level, according to Baron Humboldt, 
is 3 feet 94 inches above the great square of Mexico. 

5th. The lake of Tezcoco is that in which the ancient city of 
Tenochtitlan was built upon the spot at present occupied by the 
modern city of Mexico, whose walls, however, are now reached by 
a canal of nearly a mile in length from the western borders of this 
mland sea. The rivers Teotihuacan, Guadalupe or Tepeyacac, 
Papalotla and Tezcoco are voided into it. The difference between 
its water-mark and the level of Mexico, which in Humboldt’s time was 
four feet and one inch has been found by recent measurements to be 
18 inches more. Its superficial extent is about 10 square leagues, and 
its waters are plentifully impregnated with salt, supplying the mate- 
rial for numerous works which are rudely conducted. <A thick crust 
or deposit of carbonate of soda constantly whitens the edges of this 
lake, which are left bare by the receding of the waters after they 
have been swept over the leeward shores by the strong winds that 
occasionally prevail in the valley. The deepest parts of the lake of 
Tezcoco never contain more than from 6 to 8 feet of water, while 
some portions are not covered by more than two or three feet. 
There are two springs of mineral waters in the neighborhood of the 
capital; —one at Guadalupe, three miles from Mexico, and another 
at El Pefion, a volcanic pustule which rises abruptly from the plain 
on the margin of the lake of Tezcoco. ‘The temperature of the lat- 
ter is quite high. 

The mode in which the valley is relieved from the danger of in- 
undations in consequence of the rising of the waters of the lakes 


CITIES-——SAN AUGUSTIN— FESTIVAL—TEZCOCO, TACUBA. 237 


has been already noticed in a previous portion of this work.!. The 
desague, according to recent reports, requires considerable repairs 
and improvements for the future security of the capital. 

The principal cities, towns and villages of this State are: — The 
national and state capital Mexico;— St. Angel, three leagues from 
the capital; — Tacubaya, about equidistant from Mexico, contain- 
ing a number of beautiful residences, and an archiepiscopal Palace 
surrounded by groves and gardens; Santa Fé, Tlalpam or San 
Augustin de las Cuevas, four leagues south of the capital, situated 
upon the first slopes of the mountains, and filled with charming 
dwellings, to which the Mexicans occasionally retire during the 
warm season. It is in this town that the festival of St. Augustin is 
kept in the month of May, and during the three days of its celebra- 
tion, Tlalpam is a scene of gaiety rarely equalled elsewhere on this 
continent. Rich and poor pour out from the capital to partake of 
the unrestrained amusements of the season, and thousands of dol- 
lars are lost at the gambling table or in the cock-pit, without which 
no Mexican festival is considered complete. The Mexican ladies 
appear at the balls which are given every night, or during the after- 
noon, on the green at the Calvario, and vie with each other in the 
splendor and variety of their dresses. 

Ajusco, is a village south of Tlalpam:— Chalco, lies on the bor- 
ders of the lake of that name, and is surrounded by the villages of 
Acohualpan, Totolapan, Tapostlan, Jico, Tlapacoya, Xochimilco, 
Mexicalcingo, Iztapalapan, Colhuacan, Huitzilopocho, Itztacualco, 
Churubusco, and Cuyuacan, most of which are inhabited by Indians 
and Mestizos who supply the markets of the capital. The Indians 
of Chalco, with their caballos de palo or ‘‘ wooden horses,” as they 
fancifully call their boats, carry on an extensive trade with Mexico 
and its vicinity. They navigate their lake and the canal leading to 
it with great dexterity; and large boats, capable of containing fifty 
or sixty persons, are almost daily seen leaving the landings at Mexi- 
co in order to convey passengers and freight to the neighboring 
country. 

Tezcoco, lies on the eastern shore of the lake of that name, opposite 
Mexico, and at the distance of about 12 miles. ft is no longer a 
town of much importance, but is interesting for its historical asso- 
ciations and for the ancient remains within its limits and neighbor- 
hood which will be subsequently described. 

Tacuba is the site of the Spanish army’s refuge after the noche 
triste or ‘‘melancholy night,’’ durmg which Cortéz and his band 


1 See page 179, vol. I. 


238 TOLUCA—-CASCADE OF REGLA. 


were driven from the Aztec capital in the year 1520. The image 


of the Virgin of Remedios, has been generally kept in a chapel in 


this village, and has often been brought to the capital in seasons 
of danger, distress or disease. 

TLANEPANTLA; QuavutiTLan; San Tomas; San Cristovar 
XALTOCAN; TonantTLa; TEHUILoYUcA; ZuMPANGO; HUEHUE- 
Toca ; are towns and villages north of Mexico. 

San Juan DE TEoTIHUACAN, and Orumsa, lie east of the lake 
of Tezcoco, and are interesting for the fertility of their neighbor- 
hood and for their antiquities. 

A ridge of iofty mountains, west of the capital, rismg from the 
plain beyond the limits of Tacubaya separates the valley of Mexico 
from the valley of Toluca, in which is found the town of Totuca 
at the foot of the porphyritic mountains of San Miguel Tutucuitlal- 
pillo, at an elevation of 8,606 feet above the level of the sea. It is 
a beautiful town, celebrated for its soap and candle factories; and 
the epicures of hams and sausages, procure their choicest dainties 
from its neighborhood. Lerma, lies on the banks of the pond from 
which the river Lerma springs; and Istlahuaca, twelve leagues from 
Toluca, is found in a spur of the same valley. 


THE CASCADE OF REGLA. 


TOWNS CONTINUED — VALLEY OF CUERNAVACA. 239 


The elevations, north of the valley of Toluca, which separate it 
from the valley of the river Tula, vary from 10,000 to 7,500 feet, 
and, in the bosom of the latter vale, is found the town of Tuxa, 
twenty-two leagues north-west of the capital. It is regularly built, 
on broad streets, and is celebrated for its Sunday-market, to which 
the Indians and Mestizos of the adjacent country flock in numbers. 

TuLanzinco and Apam, are the chief towns of the districts ; — 
Pacuuca is a mining town 8,112 feet above the sea, and, next to 
Tasco, the oldest mineral work in Mexico. It contains, with its 
suburbs of Pachuquillo, about 5,000 inhabitants. 

REAL DEL Monte, is another mining town, two leagues northerly 
from Pachuca, at an elevation of about 9,000 feet. Its climate is 
cold, and its extremely rarefied air is dangerous for lungs unac- 
customed to breathe the atmosphere of such lofty regions. Within 
a few leagues of this place is the celebrated Cascade of Regla. 

Arotonitco EL Cuico, or Ex Cuico, is also a mining village, 
7,737 teet above the sea, 4 leagues north-west from Pachuca, and 
25 north-east from Mexico. It is situated onthe slope of a beauti- 
ful valley, surrounded by high mountains, whose peaks peer above 
the tops of the forest. In the vicinity of Chico, about 5 leagues 
west and north-west lie the mines of Capula and Santa Rosa. 

ATOTONILCO EL GRANDE is a village 7 leagues north of Real del 
Monte. _ 

Actopan and IrzmicuiLpan lie in the midst of fine agricultural 
regions. 

ZIMAPAN, iS a mining town, about 10 leagues north-west of 
Itzmicuilpan, and 42 from Mexico, situated on the slope of a wide 
and deep valley, which is watered by a copious brook. 

San José del Oro, is a village and mining district, north of 
ZIMAPAN. 

Huejutla; Mextitlan; and Zacualtipan, complete the enumeration 
of important towns or villages in this part of the State. 


From the height of 9,784 feet above the sea, at the Cruz del 
Marquez, the road descends across the sierra at the southern end 
of the valley of Mexico, into the valley of Cuernavaca, which, as 
we have already remarked in the historical part of this work, is a 
corruption of the Aztec ‘“‘Quaunahuac.”? This broad, beautiful and 
rich valley, lying between three and four thousand feet lower 
than the valley of Mexico, winds gradually into the vallies of 
Cuautla and Puebla around the eastern spurs of Popocatepetl, and 


is remarkable for its fruitfulness and salubrity Sugar, coffee, 
2E 


240 ACAPANTZINGO—ITS INDIAN ISOLATION, 


indigo, and all the tropical plants and trees, are successfully culti- 
vated, and the 48 sugar estates comprehended within its limits, 
produce not less than 200,000 hundred weight of raw and refined 
sugar, besides 50,000 barrels of distilled spirits. 

The chief town is Cuernavaca, lying 3,998 feet above the sea, 
3,426 below the city of Mexico, and 5,786 feet beneath the Cruz 
del Marquez, from the neighborhood of which the whole panorama 
of this splendid valley bursts upon the traveller. Cuernavaca rests 


on a tongue of land projecting into the valley between two steep 


barrancas or ravines. Plentifully supplied with water, and situated 
in the midst of the tierra caliente, it is, of course, buried among 
luxuriant foliage which is never touched with frost. The town 
may, therefore, be justly called a garden, in whose midst rise the 
picturesque houses of the townsfolk, — the walls of the church built 
by Cortéz,— and the dwelling that was erected during the Spanish 
dynasty by the fortunate miner Laborde. The grounds, attached 
to this edifice, were laid out with care and taste. Lakelets spread 
out among the profuse vegetation; bellevues were erected at every 
spot whence a favorite prospect of the valley might be obtained; 
and bowers were built in the shadiest corners amid lofty palms or 
choice varieties of native and exotic plants. Time and neglect 
have done their work upon this beautiful structure; but the vegeta- 
tion is so abundant and graceful, that the ruined portions are soon 
filled up and concealed by flowers or leaves. Few spots on earth 
afford a more agreeable retreat to a man who is willing to pass his 
life in a tropical climate and in a stagnant society. ! 

ACAPANTZINGO is a Village in the neighborhood of Cuernavaca, 
whose Indian inhabitants are remarkable for their entire separation 
from the rest of the Mexican population. They have never mingled 
their blood with the Spaniards during the three hundred years of 
foreign dominion, but have always preserved, intact, their own 
laws, habits, institutions, language and customs. They work on 
the neighboring plantations; but, with this exception, refuse all in- 
tercourse with the Mexicans, or part in their government. ‘The 
authorities have never forced them to abandon their secluded sys- 
tem; but seem to have respected their feeble rights, as the invaders 
respected the republic of San Marino in Italy during the wars that 
succeeded the French revolution. 

CACAHUAMILPA, or CacAHUAWAMILPA, an Indian village in 
whose vicinity lies the remarkable cavern of that name which winds 


1 See chapter on the agriculture of Mexico for more extended notices of the char- 
acter of the valley of Cuernavaca. 


Ee 


TOWNS CONTINUED. Q41 


for many miles in the heart of the mountain, and is filled with some 
of the most curious and gigantic stalagmites and stalactites on our 
continent. 

YAUTEPEC is a village between the vallies of Cuautla and Cuer- 
navaca; and is celebrated for the excellence and quantity of its 
tropical fruits. Zapotes, bananas, anonas, guayavas, pome- 
granates, pine apples grow luxuriantly, with the least care or labor, 
and at least thirty thousand dollars worth of sweet oranges are 
annually sent from it to the market of Mexico. 

CuauTLa DE AmiLpas, or Crupap More tos, is a town in the 
valley of that name, and made the staunch and memorable resistance 
to the Spaniards, under the heroic Morelos, during the revolutionary 
war. It lies 24 leagues S. S. East from the Valley of Mexico, — 
13 east from Cuernavaca, and is 4,019 feet above the level of 
the sea. Its climate and productions resemble those of Cuerna- 
vaca, but it has never recovered from the effects of the deadly 
siege. 


Passing in a south-westerly direction from the Valleys of Cuautla, 
Cuernavaca, Mexico and Toluca, we enter the rich metallic region 
of Tasco which lies upon the declivities of the Sierra Madre, 
sloping towards the Pacific. In this district we find the town of 
TEMASCALTEPEC, which grew up in the midst of a mining country, 
formerly rich in the production of silver, but now almost abandoned 
for such purposes. ‘The North Americans were induced to adven- 
ture largely in the mines of this district immediately after the revo- 
lution, but their capitals were entirely lost in works which were 
found to have been abandoned by the Spaniards as valueless, long 
before they were sold by speculators to companies from the United 
States. The climate of Temascaltepec is mild and agreeable ; and, 
when the mines were productive, it must have been an agreeable 
residence. The inhabitants, who have abandoned their former min- 
eral speculations, now devote themselves to the manufacture of cot- 
ton shawls and rebozos. 

ii VALLES REAL DEL Cristo; Sutterec; La Plata; Texv- 
PILLO; ZACUALPAN; HurEsuLTEPEC; ALMOLOYAN; MALINAL- 
TENANGO and TrcamoTeprec are villages in the vicinity of 
Temascaltepec. 

Tasco is a mining town and capital of the canton or district of 
that name, 5,853 feet above the sea. The village itself is not im- 
portant, but is nevertheless worthy of note as the oldest mining 
region in the confederacy. Soon after the conquest it was wrought 


242 TOWNS CONTINUED. 


for tin, which had been found in the neighborhood by the Indians ; 
and in the year 1752, Laborde, fully developed its mineral wealth 
in Silver. 


Extending our observations further to the south-west, we reach 
the district of Acapulco, which is divided between the slopes of the 
Sierra and the shores of the Pacific. ‘The declivities of the Cor- 
dillera are cut by deep vallies, which open their long and regular 
vistas towards the ocean. ‘The principal places in this part of the 
State of Mexico, are Cu1Lapa, with 4,000 inhabitants; Mrezcaua; 
Curitpantzinco; Mazattan; APANDARO, with 3,500 inhabitants; 
ZIRANDARO, and ACAPULCO. 


BAY OF ACAPULCO. 


The city of Acaputco is the capital of its district and a port in 
the Pacific in 16° 50! 29” north latitude, and 102° 12/ 12” west 
longitude from Paris. It lies in a bay, 19,700 yards long, from East 
to West, protected by a ring of granitic hills and rocks, in which 
ships may easily load. The entrance to the bay is broad; and the 
anchorage good, but the water 1s not deep. Acapulco was formerly 
the seat of Spanish trade between Mexico and the East; but its 


MINES IN THE STATE. 243 


small population of 3,000 Mulattos, Zambos and a few Mexicans, 
who are chiefly pearl divers, fishermen and farmers, fully indicates 
the decline of its commerce and civilization. 


The mountains of the State of Mexico are rich in deposits of pre- 
cious and base metals. North and north-east of the Valley of 
Mexico are the mining districts and mines of Real del Monte, Mo- 
ran, Atotonilco el Chico, Pachuca, El Cardinal, Zimapan, Lomo 
del Toro, Macroni, Pechuga, and San José del Oro. West and 
‘south-west of the Valley, are the districts of Rancho del Oro, Te- 
mascaltepec, Real del Cristo, Sultepec, Zacualpan, Tasco, Tepan- 
titlan, Tetéla del Rio, and several others. These were all diligently 
worked by the Spaniards prior to the revolution, but have not been 
found as profitable by the foreigners who undertook their manage- 
ment since the Independence of Mexico. In the year 1835, num- 
bers of British subjects and Germans formed companies to work 
these mines, and although the results have been favorable in some 
places, the greater part of these luckless enterprises have been alto- 
gether abandoned.! Such has been the sad issue in most of the 
speculations in silver mines; but we learn that a native company 
has explored and worked an iron mine at the foot of the Volcano of 
Popocatepetl, which promises to repay them for their trouble and 
expense with a plentiful supply of this useful metal. 


'Muhlenpfordt, vol. 2, p. 294. 


CHA P TehoR? VT: 


DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF MEXICO—CATHEDRAL——ITS ARCHI- 
TECTURE AND RICHES——THE PALACE — UNIVERSITY— MARKET 
— CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, ETC. — PORTALES — MINERIA — LA 
MERCED — SAN DOMINGO — CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES 
PASEOS — ALAMEDA — AQUEDUCTS — PASSEO NUEVO AND DE 
LA VIGA—ALAMEDA—DESCRIPTION OF IT—LIFE IN MEXICO— 
THEATRES — OPERA — DOMESTIC LIFE — GENUINE BUT CAU- 
TIOUS HOSPITALITY— LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 


THE CITY OF MEXICO. 


riers 


Niall 
; 


[LPpOBEBT SSE 


A STREET IN THE CITY OF MEXICO. 


Tue city of Mexico has generally been reputed by travellers as 
the most beautiful on the American Continent. Its picturesque 
site, in the lap of the lovely valley, bordered by broad meadows 
and lakes, has doubtless contributed greatly to this opinion, and it 
is, indeed, necessary for a stranger to reside for a long time within 


Ke) 
UO 
O 
IUALN 
rN vie 


"TW 
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DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF MEXICO— CATHEDRAL. QA5 


its walls before he becomes sufficiently disenthralled from the spells 
of climate and national scenery, in order to do justice to the other 
American capitals. Mexico, unquestionably, is the queen of Spanish 
cities on this side of the Atlantic; but, in external taste, in modern 
elegance, and an agreeable combination of splendor and comfort, it 
does not compare favorably with the chief towns in the United 
States. 

Built in regular, square blocks, on a dead level, it wants the 
picturesque breaks or abruptness, which are only found on inequali- 
ties of surface. Its houses, erected around quadrangles—with a ° 
court yard or patio in the centre of each,—are stern and massive 
edifices; but they have rather the air of castles designed for defence 
or seclusion, than of habitations whose cheerful portals extend a 
hearty welcome to every passer. They partake of the age in which 
they were constructed, and of the traditionary architecture of South- 
ern Europe. Yet,—in the pellucid air of these lofty regions, — 
with its fancifully frescoed walls basking in the pure sunshine, and 
relieved against the dark back ground of surrounding mountains ;— 
its streets filled with a motly and picturesque crowd ;—its towers 
and domes breaking the regular evenness of the flat roofed dwell- 
ings,—and its splendid groves in the alamedas and paseos,— 
Mexico is, indeed, a capital worthy a great nation, as well as of the 
enduring recollection and praise of every traveller who visits it. 

The plan of the city is as regular as that of a checquer board. 
Its straight streets divide it from east to west and north to south; 
whilst, nearly in the centre, the great squareor Plaza spreads out for 
many an acre, surrounded by the chief edifices of the State, the 
Corporation or the Church. 

On the northern portion of the plaza is erected — on the alleged 
site of the great ¢eocallt, or pyramid temple of the Aztecs, — the 
cathedral, with its adjacent Sagrario. It is, externally and in- 
ternally, an imposing building of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries ; for although its architecture is neither regular, classical, 
nor conformable to the rules of any distinct order, yet its massive- 
ness and elaborate detail, impart to it a certain degree of effective 
grandeur. We have always found it impossible to receive, or im- 
part an idea of architectural beauty or magnificence by description 
alone. The best writer can but catalogue dimensions and details, 
and his account is, therefore, always more of a builder’s estimate or 
bill, than a picture which impresses our minds with a vivid image 
of the real object. We turn, therefore, gladly from the feeble pen 
to the graphic pencil, and refer the curious reader to the accurate 


246 ITS ARCHITECTURE AND RICHES—THE PALACE. 


plates which accompany this volume, for a better idea of the in- 
ternaland external appearance of this sacred edifice, than we can 
convey by language alone. 

Yet there are parts of the cathedral to which even the pencil can- 
not do justice. The floor of this magnificent temple, — made of 
loose and heavy boards, which are moveable at pleasure, in order 
to allow sepulture beneath them,—zis the only part of it which 
seems neglected or shabby. Every thing else is gorgeous beyond 
conception, although the splendor is more colonially barbaric, than 
nationally classic. Profusion is the chief characteristic. It seems 
as if the priests and the pious worshippers had designed to heap 
up rather than arrange their offerings in honor of the Almighty, and 
as if their piles of precious metals would form the most graceful as 
well as grateful emblem of their religious sincerity. In the wilder- 
ness of columns, statues, shrines, oratories, altars and fonts, the 
traveller stands amazed and confused; and leaving the pictures of 
the church to demonstrate its complete effect, he retreats upon the 
metallic standards which surround him, in order to convey the best 
estimate of this queen of American temples. 

The exterior walls front upwards of four hundred feet on the 
plaza, and run back about five hundred feet to the narrow street of 
Tacuba. Entering the main portal, whilst the huge bells are 
clanging in the two steeples above it, you face the chowr for the 
clergy, which is built of rare, carved woods, and elaborately covered 
with gilded images, whose burnished surface flashes in the sunlight. 
Beyond this is the high altar, raised from the floor on an elevated 
platform, and covered with ornaments, crosses, and candle-sticks, 
wrought in the precious metals. From this sanctuary, — extend- 
ing around the choir, and probably near two hundred feet in length, 
—runs a railing, between four and five feet high, and proportionally 
massive, composed of gold and silver very slightly alloyed with 
copper. And on the summit of the high altar rests the figure of 
the Virgin of Remedios, whose dowry in dresses, diamonds, emer- 
alds and pearls is estimated at not less than three millions of dollars. 

On the east of the cathedral, fronting the west, and bounding the 
whole eastern limit of the plaza, is the national palace, formerly the 
residence of the viceroys, and now occupied by the president, as a 
dwelling. It is an immense quadrangular building, constructed on 
the ground which it is supposed was covered by the palace of Ax- 
ayacatl, in which Cortéz was lodged by Montezuma, when he fist 
arrived in the Aztec capital. Besides affording room for the pre- 
sident and his family, this huge edifice contains all the offices of 


. 


UNIVERSITY — MARKET— CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES. Q47 


the several secretaries of state ; the general treasury and tribunal of 
accounts ; the supreme court; the headquarters of the general-in- 
chief; the two chambers of deputies and the senate, both of which 
are elegant apartments, and, especially that of the deputies ; — two 
barracks for infantry, cavalry, and a park of artillery; —two 
prisons ; some shops; a botanical garden ; and the mint. South of 
the National Palace, but not fronting the plaza, are the University, 
containing the National Museum, in front of which is the magnifi- 
cent modern market, built during the administration of Santa Anna 
in 1842. 


q Bail) 
aa) { 


THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES. 


Directly opposite the facade of the cathedral, in the south-eastern 
corner of the plaza, is the Casa Municipal, or City Hall, which is oc- 
cupied partly by the corporate authorities, and partly by the mer- 
chants’ Lonja, or exchange. On the western side of the square 
there are no public buildings ; but the palace of Cortéz, which was 
erected by the conqueror and rebuilt and still owned by his de- 
scendants, covers a portion of its front and deserves to be mentioned 
for its associations if not for its architectural beauty. The whole 


of the side walks on the southern part of the plaza, and a portion of the 
2F 


248 PORTALES — MINERIA—LA MERCED. 


western, beyond the Calle Plateros, or street of the silversmiths, are 
protected by a broad and massive corridor or portico, called the 
portales, in which the traveller will constantly find crowds of 
hawkers, pedlars, shopmen, letter writers, clothiers, fruit sellers, 
liquor venders, crockery dealers and book hucksters. A few squares 
west of the plaza, is situated the magnificent palace of the Mineria, 
or School of Mines, one of the most elegant edifices in the capital. 


COLLEGE OF MINES—(EXTERIOR.) 


In noticing the general splendour and luxury of ecclesiastical 
architecture in Mexico we should not omit to mention particularly 
the beautiful convent of La Merced, a view of whose elegant in- 
terior court and corridor is presented in the opposite plate. Gloomier 
recollections, however, are conjured up from the past by beholding 
the church of San Domingo and the neighboring inquisition, which 
was the prison and the place of torture to so many unfortunate vic- 
tims during the viceroyal government of New Spain. 

It is, in the centre or heart of the city, that all the characteristic 
habits and costumes of the people may be most readily observed. 
The great body of the crowd is, of course, composed of the common 
classes—the males in their shirts and trowsers with a blanket thrown 


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SAN DOMINGO—CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES. QA49 


over their shoulders, and the females in chemise and closely cinc- 
tured petticoat of fanciful colors, whilst their heads, and thinly clad 
bosoms, are folded and partly concealed in their graceful rebozos. 
Then there are the wretched leperos, whose long and tangled hair 
falls in wierd strands over their tawny necks and dirty brows, be- 
neath which flash the sharp black eyes that are constantly on the 
watch for something to do, to drink, to eat, or to steal. In the 
neighborhood of the pulquerias or liquor shops, crowds of these 
social vermin swarm and sleep. 


CHURCH OF SAN DOMINGO AND THE INQUISITION. 


Pushing his way, eagerly and industriously through the crowd, 
the laborious aguador, or water carrier elbows his way, as he trots 
his rounds to fulfil his daily task with his twin jars of the refreshing 
fluid, one of which he bears upon his back, suspended by a strap 
around his brow, and balanced by another which depends from a 
leathern thong, which rests upon the back of his head. Hard by 
the aguador, appear the carbonero, or coal dealer, —the poultry 
seller, —the crockery pedlar, or the porter, —all of whom bear 
their burdens on their shoulders, and move along in that ambling 
trot which is peculiar to the laborers and Indians of Mexico. Large 


250 CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES. 


numbers of women with oranges, pears, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, 
lemons, guyavas, aguacates, chirimoyas, plantains, fish and eggs, 
swell the increasing crowds. The butcher drives along a diminu- 
tive donkey, on whose saddle he has erected his peripatetic sham- 
bles, filled with beef or mutton, whilst, at the corners and on the 
edge of the side walks, sit long rows of Indian women with pans 
of savory chile sauces and heaping baskets or cloths of steaming 
tortillas. All these eager venders of the necessaries and luxuries 
of life, engage public attention by shouting the quality and value of 
their wares at the top of their voices. Sound and motion are the 
predominant features of the varied panorama; and the stunned 
stranger is glad to retreat into quiet nooks and byeways in which 
he meets the stately gentlewoman and cavalier, dressed in the be- 
coming habiliments of their station. When ladies go abroad in 
Mexico to shop or visit, they universally use their coaches; yet 
every woman daily walks to mass,— and, whilst engaged in this 
religious pilgrimage, exhibits the old and habitual costume of black 
silk gown and lace mantilla, which she has derived from her 
Spanish ancestors. This is a charming dress. It exposes the 
black, lustrous hair of the graceful wearers, and fully develops 
that majestic yet feminine gait with which the Mexican women 
seem to glide and undulate along their path. The inseparable fan, 
—her constant companion, play thing and interpreter, in the sa- 
loon, the ball room, the theatre or the church, —rests carelessly, in 
her right hand, which coquettishly clasps the folds of her mantilla ; 
and, from beneath its silken folds, her large lustrous eyes gleam 
soft and languishingly above her pale but healthful cheeks. If 
Mexican ladies are not so variously beautiful as the women of 
northern lands, in whose veins the blood of many nations has 
mingled, they are most loveable creatures in spite of the uniformity 
of their national type. There is a degree of exquisite tenderness, 
and an expression of affectionate sincerity, in the face of Mexican 
women, which instantly wins not only the respect but the confidence 
of the gazer. Nor does their character in real life contradict their 
amiable physiognomy. Faithful as a friend and as a wife, the 
Mexican lady is a person, who, with the educational advantages 
enjoyed by their northern sisters, would rightfully maintain as high 
a position in the social scale, with, perhaps, a more delicate degree 
of sensibility. 

The lower classes of females are of course different from the up- 
per ranks both in appearance and personal qualities. They are of 
impure blood. Spaniard, Indian, Negro and Malay, have con- 


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PASSEOS — ALAMEDA — AQUEDUCTS. OBI 


tributed to their ancestral pedigree, and their race is consequently 
mixed ; yet, impure as they are by descent they have not failed, like 
all imitative inferiors to catch the manners and bearing of the aris- 
tocracy. There is hardly a Mexican girl,— whose whole wardrobe 
consists of her chemise, petticoat, rebozo, comb, looking-glass and 
shoes,—who does not move along the street, when in full dress, 
with the queenly step and coquettish display of eye and hair from 
beneath her cotton rebozo, which we have just admired in the Mexi- 
can dona. 

The costume of Mexican gentlemen is the usual European dress 
worn by the same class among northern nations, But, in addition, 
the broad folds of a massive cloak are always thrown over their 
shoulders upon the slightest pretext or provocation of the weather, 
whilst their nostrils are constantly refreshed by the fragrant fumes 
of a cigar or cigaritto. 


The city of Mexico possesses two magnificent Passeos and an 
Allameda in, which all classes of the people habitually recreate them- 
selves. The city is supplied with water by splendid aqueducts, 
bringing the limpid streams from the neighboring hills. 


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TERMINATION OF AQUEDUCT IN CITY OF MEXICO. 


The Passeo Nuevo lies west of the city towards Chapultepec and 
Tacubaya. It is a broad avenue, laid out tastefully amid the beau- 
tiful meadows that surround the city, and is broken at intervals by 
fountains of stone, and shaded by rows of stately trees. When the 


252 PASSEO NUEVO AND DE LA VIGA— ALAMED. 


weather is fine, which it usually is for six or eight months of the 
year, the disengaged people pour out to this gay resort, near 
sunset, on foot, in coach, or on horseback, to enjoy the refreshing 
breeze and to greet each other on this social exchange. The Passeo | 
is broad enough to allow several coaches, to drive abreast if need- 
ful, but the course is usually occupied by only two lines of ad- 
vancing and returning carriages or horsemen. This promenade 
parade circulates up and down the highway for an hour; but when 
the evening bells toll for oracion, every hat is raised for a moment 
and every horse’s head immediately turned homewards. 

The Passeo de la Viga, is on the other side of the city, and is 
preferred by many persons to the Passeo Vuevo. It skirts one of 
the canals leading to the lake of Chalco, and affords the stranger an 
opportunity of observing the crowds of Indians who linger along the 
banks, or push off at evening in their boats, crowned with flowers 
and strumming their guitars if the day happens to be one of festivity. 

This Passeo was constructed under the viceroyalty of Revilla-Gi- 
gedo, whose improvements of the city and neighborhood of Mexico 
have contributed so greatly to the elegance and beauty of -the 
capital. 


THE ALAMEDA FOUNTAIN. 


The Alameda is a beautiful grove of lofty forest trees planted in 
a rich soil in the western section of the city and on the road to the 


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DESCRIPTION OF IT——LIFE IN MEXICO. 253 


Passeo Nuevo. It occupies a space of ten or twelve acres, enclosed 
by a substantial stone wall, which is surrounded by a deep and 
flooded moat. The gates are closed daily at the Oracion ; and the 
spot is thus protected carefully from all improper uses as well as from 
wanton destruction. Around the whole of the inner wall, lines of 
substantial stone seats are erected, and, in front of them, an excellent 
carriage road affords a drive for those who are not disposed to min- 
ele in the gayer circle of the passeos. Within this highway the 
plantations begin. Paved paths cross and recross the dense groves 
in a labyrinth of lines, while, at intervals, fountains and secluded 
benches break the uniform solemnity and quietness of the spot. In 
the centre of the enclosure a massive fountain, surmounted by a 
gilded statue of Liberty, rises nobly in the midst of a broad area, 
whose top is almost domed with the arching branches of the trees, 
which admit a scant but lovely light through a narrow aperture, like 
the sky-light of the pantheon at Rome. ‘The birds, unassailed for 
years within this grove, have flown to it as a sanctuary, and the 
branches are forever vocal with their natural music. Situated as it 
is on the edge of the town, and surrounded by houses, it neverthe- 
less seems buried in the depths of a forest; and perhaps no spot, in 
America, is so fitted for the enjoyment of a quiet man, who can 
either take his exercise on foot or horseback, beneath the sheltering 
trees, or wile away his hours with book and pencil on the com- 
fortable seats in the shady woods. It is the favorite resort in the 
morning of all classes who are obliged to rise betimes and go abroad 
for health. Students, priests, monks, lovers, loungers, dyspeptics, 
consumptives, nurses, and troops of lovely children resort to the 
/Allameda as soon as the gates are opened, and study, meditate, pray, 
flirt, exercise, or romp, until their appetites or the sun warn them 
of the flight of time. 

In these drives, in dress, dining, domestic duties, mass, and thea- 
tre the hours of a Mexican’s day are chiefly consumed. This cata- 
logue of ‘idle occupations,” does not, of course comprise all 
classes, but includes that portion of the aristocracy which is every 
where set apart by its fortunate exemption from necessary toil. In 
a country so rich as Mexico this class must necessarily be large; 
and, if it begins the day in plain black, and on its knees in chapels, 
it ends its waking hours amid the blaze of dress and jewels in the 
family box in the theatre. In most of the countries of southern 
Europe, and in all their old colonial possessions, the theatre is one 
of the necéssaries of life, and a box is as indispensable as a dwell- 
ing. It forms a neutral ground upon which all can meet without the 


954 THEATRES — OPERA. 


requirements of a forced hospitality, and consequently it affords all 
the pleasures of general society without the necessity of expensive 
entertainment. There are great disadvantages attending upon this 
constant dwelling in the public eye and in the blaze of artificial 
light; yet it is so agreeable a mode of killing time in Mexico, that 
the habits or the nature of the people must change essentially be- 
fore we may expect to find them surrounding nightly the domestic 
hearth instead of the dramatic stage. Yet we should not be unjust 
to the Mexicans in this condemnation of one of their agreeable 
habits, which originates perhaps as much in their climate as in their 
tastes. Fine skies and genial atmospheres drive people into the 
open air. Wintry winds, desolate heaths, ice and snow, gather 
and group them into the nestling places of home. When houses 
become in this way mere shelters instead of shrines we might well 
pardon the taste which leads a sensitive people to enjoy the beauti- 
ful landscape as long as day permits it to be seen, or to retreat, at 
nightfall, into those splendid theatres in which they may behold the 
mimic representation of that varied activity of life to which their 
monotonous Career is a comparative stranger. 


NEW THEATRE. 


Nevertheless, a well-bred Mexican family is one of the most de- 
lightful circles into which a genteel stranger can be admitted. The 


DOMESTIC LIFE. 255 


formal manners of the Spaniards have descended to the Mexicans. 
You are received cordially but carefully, and you must either be 
useful or known, before you are admitted into the confidence of a 
family. Until this occurs your reception and departure from a 
Mexican dwelling are quite as ceremonious as your initiation into a 
Masonic lodge. Bows, gestures, shrugs, grimaces, and all the or- 
dinary rites of external politeness are plentifully bestowed on the 
stranger; — ‘“‘ But sad is the plight of the luckless knight,’ who 
imagines that these elegant formalities literally mean what the 
profess. Americans, especially, whose extraordinary and loose so- 
cial facilities habituate them to an unrestrained intercourse with all 
the members of families as soon as they are either prudently or im- 
prudently introduced to them,—are often ip danger of making this 


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INTERIOR OF A MEXICAN HOUSE. 


sad mistake in Mexico. Neither wealth, education, nor political 

position, entitle an individual in that republic to pass the threshold 

of distant and civil intercourse. The Mexican’s house, purse, or 

daughter, are not at “your disposal,” although he tells you that 
2G 


256 GENUINE BUT CAUTIOUS HOSPITALITY. 


every thing he possesses is ‘“‘@ la disposicion de Usted!” Yet, 
when his acquaiatance has ripened into friendship, and he under- 
stands that you appreciate his tastes, his country, his laagvage, his 
prejudices, his religion, and his habits, or do not visit him, as many 
foreigners have done, merely to scoff and condemn, —then, indeed, 
the social manners of the Mexican relax into intimacy, and the 
attention he bestows on you may be more firmly trusted because it 
was so cautiously yielded. The stranger who penetrates a Mexican 
house under such circumstances, finds its hospitality unbounded, 
and its generous inmates his devoted and faithful servants either for 
life or until he forfeits their esteem by treachery or misconduct. 


THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 


In every Mexican church, monastery, convent, palace, house, 
hut, hovel, hacienda, or rancho, the traveller will not fail to observe 
an image of “The Virgin of Guadalupe.” Many men receive the 
name of ‘Guadalupe,’ in baptism, and almost every woman has it 
added to the others she receives from her parents or sponsors. A 
saint whose tutelary influence is at once so national and so curious 
deserves especial mention in the notice of a country over whose 
people she is supposed to exercise a mysterious dominion; and we 
therefore present the reader the following translation from the Span- 


LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 957 


ish of Don Ignacio Barillo y Perez, in which the history of her 
miraculous appearance is set forth with more detail than we have 
elsewhere encountered. 

The story of the Virgin is implicitly believed by the great mass 
of the people ; and the wonderful picture, described in the following 
account, adorned with invaluable precious stones, is now preserved 
in a massive golden frame, in the collegiate church of Guadalupe 
erected at the foot of the hill of Tepeyacac. On the 12th of every 
December, the anniversary of the miraculous visit, the people pom 
forth from the capital to the sacred shrine and witness the splen: 
did rites instituted in honor of the saint. In the temple and at 
the holy well, they are met by crowds of country folks and Indians, 
who come from far and near on the same errand, while the whole 
pompous ceremonial is countenanced by the presence and apparent 
devotion of all the high officers of government including the presi- 
dent himself. } 


LEGEND OF THE APPARITION OF THE Most Hoty Virein Mary 
OF GUADALUPE; THE PaTROoN SAINT AND PROTECTRESS OF 
Mexico. 


Tepeyacac is a small mountain whose southern side is a scarped 
and inaccessible precipice which looks to Mexico, situated on the 
south of it at the distance of about three miles. Its ascent, by 
whatever part undertaken, except that of the pathways made to fa- 
cilitate the access, is extremely rough and stony. Its whole surface 
is covered with crowsfeet, buck and hawthorn, which are common 
to such sterile wastes. The Indian name, Tepeyacac, signifies the 
abrupt extremity or termination of hills, and in this bluff, terminate 
all the hills to the north of the capital. 

It was celebrated in the days of heathenism for the worship paid 
in this place to the mother of the false gods of the Indians, but 
it is more celebrated at present for the adoration which is worthily 
paid to the Mother of the true God in her beautiful temple. 

As Juan Diego, —an Indian recently converted, of pure and 
unblemished morals, though of lowly birth, was passing by this 
place on Saturday, December 9th, 1531, on his way to hear mass 
and participate in the Christian worship which the Franciscan 
fathers taught in the district of Tlatelolco, at the hour of early dawn, 
he heard, upon attaining the brow of the little mountain, which he 

1 See also, ‘‘Mexico as it was and as it is’? —p. 63, for a full account of the cere- 


monies of the Collegiate church, and of Archkishop Lorenzano’s sermon, preached 
in 1760, confirming the miraculous history. 


258 LEGEND OF THE 


was ascending on the western side, a sweet, sonorous and harmo 
nious music, as of little birds upon its summit. The ravishing tones 
and rare melody attracted his attention and arrested his steps. On 
looking up, as was natural, he saw a white and shining cloud, sur- 
rounded by a rainbow, and in its centre a most beautiful lady, like 
the image we now venerate in the sanctuary, who calling with a 
sweet and gentle voice, addressed him in his own language with 
wonderful suavity and told him she was the Virgin Mary, Mother of 
God, whose mass and doctrine he was going to hear, and she com- 
manded him to go to the bishop and tell him that it was her will 
that a temple should be built to her upon that spot, in which she 
would show herself a pious mother towards him, his nation, devo- 
tees, and as many as should solicit her support and protection in 
their hour of need. She directed him to tell all he had seen and 
heard, and added: ‘ Be sure, my son, for whom I feel a delicate and 
tender love, that I will repay all you do for me; I will render you 
famous; and I will endow you with benefits for the diligence and 
labor you display. Now, my servant, in whom I delight, thou hast 
heard my desire, go thou in peace.’ 

The Indian promptly obeyed and went to the palace of the 
bishop, the illustrious Sefior Don Francisco de Zumarraga, who 
since the year 1528, had resided in Mexico with the title of Protec- 
tor of the Indians, and who afterwards became the archbishop. The 
prelate heard him with surprise, and prudently directed him to re- 
turn on some other occasion, when having well considered and ex- 
amined into so singular an event, he might deliberate as to what was 
proper to be done by him. 

The Indian returned with the answer to the Most Holy Virgin 
whom he found in the same place. Prostrating himself before her, 
with words of submission peculiar to the Indians, he repeated the reply 
of the bishop, adding that, in order to secure compliance with her 
will, it would be necessary to send some person of authority and 
credit, as it appeared to him he was not believed because he was an 
humble man and a plebeian. The Most Holy Virgin, with no less 
benignity and suavity than on the previous occasion, replied: ‘To 
me neither servants nor followers whom to send are wanting if I 
should wish, since I have multitudes at my command; but it is 
agreeable to me now that thou shouldst perform this mission, and 
make the solicitation. Through your intervention I wish to give 
effect to my will, and desire you to speak again with the bishop, 
and tell him he must build a temple in honor of me on this spot; 
and that it is the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, 


VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 259 


~ who sends you to him.’ Juan Diego answered: ‘Do not be of- 
fended, my Queen and Holy Lady, at what I have said, which is 
not intended to excuse me from this office.’ Desiring to satisfy the 
Most Holy Virgin, although fearful the bishop would not give credit 
to his story, he pledged himself to repeat the message the next day; 
and promised, that at the setting of the sun, he would be at that 
spot once more with the reply. Bidding adieu to the blessed appa- 
rition with profound humility, he went to his village and his house, 
but it is not known whether he mentioned to his wife, or other 
person, his strange adventure. 

The following day, Sunday, December 10th, 1531, Juan Diego 
went again to hear mass and participate in the Christian worship. 
Upon the conclusion of the service, he went diligently to discharge 
his mission, and although the servants of the bishop delayed him a 
long time at the entrance of the palace, he succeeded at length in 
coming into the prelate’s presence. With lively expressions of 
feeling, which made that dignitary shed tears of tender pleasure, he 
prostrated himself before the bishop, and told him he had a second 
time seen the Mother of God, who commanded him to return and 
repeat that it was her will a temple should be built in honor of her 
on the spot at which she appeared. The bishop listened with great 
attention, and examined him with many questions, in the answers 
to which he could detect no discrepancy ; and, in fine, knowing it 
could neither be a dream nor fiction of the Indian, he told him that 
what he had said was not sufficient to ensure credibility ; that he 
must ask some sign from the Holy Lady, by which it might be 
known that it was really the Mother of God who sent him. 

The Indian, with intrepid confidence, replied that he would ask 
whatever the bishop desired; when the latter, observing that he was 
not abashed, but offered to ask for the signs, ordered him to go, but, 
meanwhile, secretly despatched two confidential members of his 
family to follow the Indian, and to observe with whom Juan Diego 
spoke on his arrival at the hill of Tepeyacac. They did so; but 
when they arrived at the bridge over the river that empties, at the 
foot of the hill, into the lake which lies to the east of Mexico, 
the Indian disappeared from the spies who were watching him. 
They examined the summit, brow, and circumference of the hill, 
without failing, in their anxious solicitude, to explore every ravine, 
fissure, and fragment of it, but not finding him in any part, they con- 
cluded that the native was a deceitful impostor, and confirmed in 
that idea, they returned to the bishop, begging him to punish the 
Indian if he repeated his imposition. 


260 LEGEND OF THE 


As soon as Juan Diego, who was in advance of the servants, 
arrived at the top of the hill, he found there the Most Blessed Mary 
awaiting the prelate’s answer. Pleased with his attention and 
promptitude, she directed him to return the next day, when she 
would give him a sign that would ensure credibility with the bishop. 
The Indian promised to do so, but he could not comply with the 
mandate of Our Lady, to return the next day, December 11th, 1531, 
as he found on reaching home that his uncle, Juan Bernardino who 
held the place of father in his affections, had fallen ill of a malig- 
nant fever, which the Indians call cacolixtl, on which account he 
was detained that day in administering to him some simples used 
by the Indians, all of which, however, he applied without avail. At 
length, the infirmity assumed a fatal character, and the patient asked 
Juan Diego to call in a priest, from whom he might receive the 
Holy Sacrament and Extreme Unction. 

The 12th of the same month, before the dawn of day, Juan 
Diego set out for the Confessor, but on approaching the mountain 
near the place where he had seen and spoken to the Most Holy Vir- 
gin, foreseeing that she might blame him for his want of care in not 
having returned, and that she might detain him to carry the signs 
to the bishop, and considering moreover that the message he bore 
did not admit of delay, he pursued another path lower down the 
mountain, towards the eastern part of the hill, imagining that there 
he would not meet the Virgin. But this did not turn out as he sup- 
posed, for passing the spot whence a fountain was flowing, on turn- 
ing to the brow of the hill, he saw the Holy Mother descending 
from the summit to meet him in the path! The Indian, surprised by 
the saintly apparition, was greatly alarmed; but the Holy Virgin, 
with an affable countenance, said to him: ‘ Whither goest thou, 
my son? What road is this thou hast taken?? Juan Diego was 
sadly confused, frightened, and abashed; but the amenity with 
which Our Lady met him renewed his courage; and prostrating 
himself at her feet, he said: ‘Do not be offended, Beloved Virgin, 
at what I am about to say to you.’ And, after saluting her to ascer- 
tain the state of her health, he began to exculpate himself by briefly 
narrating the unfortunate situation of his uncle, begging her to have 
a little forbearance with him, and that he would return some cther 
day to obey her commands. 

The Holy Mary heard him with incomparable benignity, and 
replied, ‘Hear, my son, what I say. Do not allow yourself to be 
disturbed or afflicted by any thing; neither fear infirmity, affliction, 
nor grief. Am not I, your mother, here? Are you not under my 


ae ey — 


ee ee 


VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 261 


shield and protection? Do you need more? Give yourself neither 
trouble nor concern on account of the illness of your uncle, who will 
not die of this present malady; and, moreover, rest satisfied that 
even at this very instant he is perfectly cured.’ 

The Indian, consoled and satisfied by the Virgin’s assurance, 
was filled with divine confidence, and without caring for any thing 
else, he asked for the sign he was to take to the bishop. The Vir- 
gin told him to ascend ihe hill to the spot where she had previously 
conversed with him, and cutting the flowers he would find growing 
there, to collect them in his ¢i/ma or blanket and bring them to her. 

The Indian obeyed unhesitatingly, although he knew that these 
rude wastes produced nothing but thorns even in the most flourish- 
ing sprinetide. 

Arrived, however, at the summit, he found a bed of various bud- 
ding flowers, odorous and yet wet with dew. He cut, collected and 
placed in his fz/ma as many of them as it would hold and bore them 
to the Most Holy Virgin, who awaited him at the foot of a tree, 
called by the Indians Cuautzahautl, (a species of palm of wild 
growth, bearing only white flowers similar to those of the white lily,) 
which grew in front of and near the source of the fountain. The 
Indian bowed humbly and exhibited the flowers which he had cut. 
The Virgin taking them in her blessed hands impressed them with 
a holy virtue and arranged them in the Indian’s telma, (which was, 
in fine, to be the repository of her sacred image,) and said to him, 
‘This is the sign which I wish you to take to the bishop, in order 
that he may build me a temple on this spot ;’ and she charged him, 
saying, ‘show no one what you have until you arrive in his pre- 
sence |”’ 

With this she dismissed Juan;—and the Indian rejoicing in 
the sign, (for he knew that through it his embassy would have a 
happy issue,) he hastily took the path to Mexico. 

Juan Diego arrived at the palace of the bishop with the creden- 
tials of his embassy, and informed various members of the family 
that he wished to speak with him. Nevertheless he could not 
obtain permission to enter, until, enraged at his importunity and 
perceiving his ¢i/ma full of something, they sought to ascertain what 
it contained; and although in obeying the mandate of the Most Holy 
Virgin, he resisted and hid from their sight these miraculous flowers, 
they did not desist from using violence to discover what he seemed 
_ so anxious to conceal. Seeing, however, that they were only flow- 
ers wet with dew, and admirable for their beauty and tragrance, 
they thrice attempted to seize some without being able to do so, for 


262 LEGEND OF THE 


the powerful hand of the Virgin resisted their violence, affixing the 
blossoms in such a manner to the ¢i/ma that upon touching them they 
appeared painted or interwoven in the material of the garment itself. 
This portentous novelty caused them to hasten to the bishop with 
the information that Juan Diego was waiting to speak with him. 

As soon as the prelate was informed of the circumstances, he 
ordered the Indian to enter instantly. As Juan displayed his tilma 
to show the blessed sign, the flowers fell, and the image of the Most 
Holy Virgin, which we venerate in the Sanctuary of Guadalupe, ap- 
peared miraculously painted upon the ¢i/ma or garment of the Indian! 
At this wonderful sight the astonished bishop and those about him 
prostrated themselves and adored it with the greatest veneration. 
They were struck with the beauty and freshness of the flowers 
flourishing in the midst of winter, but much more by the heavenly 
beauty of the image before them, from which they neither attempted 
nor were able to withdraw their eyes. 

No less astonished was Juan Diego at seeing in his tilma the 
image of the one who had commanded him to bear the sign to the 
bishop, when he thought he was only bringing flowers. 

The bishop arose, and with due reverence untied the knot that 
suspended that sacred cloth from the back of the Indian’s neck. He 
took it to his Oratory, and, hanging it up with the greatest possible 
respect, gave thanks to God for so striking a miracle; and thus he 
became the treasurer and depository of the richest jewel in the crown 
of America. 

The bishop detained and ministered unto the Indian that day, 
and, on the following, went with a multitude to the hill, in order 
that he might point out the spot upon which the Blessed Virgin 
desired that a temple might be built. 

Arrived at the hill, he indicated the places in which he had 
seen and spoken with the Sovereign Queen,! and, asking permission 
to visit his uncle Juan Bernardino, (whom he had left in danger,) 
the bishop gave his consent, and ordered some of his companions to 
accompany Juan, directing them, if they found Juan Bernardino 
well, to bring him thither. 

Upon arriving at the village of Tolpetlac and approaching the 
house of Juan Bernardino, ‘ne convalescent Indian came forth to 
receive his nephew and ask why he was accompanied by so honor- 
able a cortege. Thereupon Juan Diego related what had transpired ; 
when Juan Bernardino, interrupting him, said, that in the self-same 


'!' The Indian not being able to point out the precise spot, a fountain gushed from 
the ground and indicated it. 


VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 263 


hour in which the Most Holy Virgin announced his recovery, she 
had in fact not only cured him, but had appeared and directed him 
to build a temple to her at Tepeyacac, where her image should be 
called Hoty Maria pE GuADALUPE. 

The servants brought the two Indians to the presence of the 
bishop ;—and having examined Juan Bernardino concerning his 
infirmity, the manner in which he had received his health, and the 
form under which Our Lady appeared to him, and many other ques- 
tions to satisfy himself concerning such a strange occurrence, whic 
he could hardly credit,—the bishop took the Indians with him to 
his palace. 

And now the fame of the miracle was rapidly spread abroad 
through the whole city; and all the towns folks clamoring to have 
the sacred image exposed to the adoration of the public, and running 
tumultuously to the palace of the Bishop, he caused it to be borne to 
the Cathedral Church, over whose highest altar it was placed during 
the building of the hermitage at the place the Indian pointed out. 
Thither it was transferred when the edifice was completed, which 
did not take place in fifteen days as is the opinion of some Guada- 
Jupanian authors, but in two years and fifteen days, on the 26th day 
of December, 1533.”’ 


PALI 


inal 
{RaTD 


— ee 


COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF GUADALUPE. 
2u 


AZTEC SERPENT FIGURE. 


GaN INS ~ 
NES = \ 
<i . 
See | 
S y ey \ 
: Z ages J ; ‘4 
2 Sof ih 

> ye y ys 


SERPENT FIGURES. 


AZTEC 


CHAPTER VII. 


ANCIENT REMAINS IN THE STATE OF MEXICO. 


ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSUEM—STATUE OF CHARLES IV.—CON- 
DITION OF THE MUSEUM—FEATHERED SERPENTS —VICEROY’S 
PORTRAITS — CORTEZ — PORTRAIT — ARMOR——PEDRO DE ALVA- 
RADO — IMAGES — VASES — TEZCOCO — PALACE — TROUGH — 
MASSIVE MOUNDS—TESCOCINGO—HILL—ITS ANCIENT ADORN- 
MENTS — ANCIENT BELLEVUE AND RESERVOIR — TEZCOCAN 
SPLENDOR — BOSQUE DEL CONTADOR — PONDS — LAKES — AR- 
BORS — PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN— HOUSES OF SUN AND 
MOON — PATH OF THE DEAD—CARVED PILLAR—PILLAR AT 

- OTUMBA — PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO— HILL OF XOCHICALCO 
— ITS STRUCTURES. 


Tue largest collection of the moveable antiquities of Mexico, 
belonging to the Aztec and probably to the Toltec period of the 
occupation of the valley or adjacent country, is found in the Museum 
which occupies two or three rooms and part of the court yard of the 
University building. In the centre of the quadrangle around which 
this edifice is erected is the fine bronze statue of Charles IV., cast 
in the capital by a native Mexican. It is an admirable work, and 
before the revolution stood in front of the cathedral in the plaza or 
great square. The Spanish sovereign is habited in an antique 
Roman dress, and is seated on horseback. His right hand, holding 
a baton, is stretched forward, in an attitude of command and the 
folds of a massive robe fall gracefully from his neck, over the hind 
limbs of his horse. His brow is bound with a laurel wreath, and a 
Roman blade rests on his thigh, whilst the animal is represented in 
the act of advancing slowly and treading on a quiver of arrows. 

This statue is, of course, liable to some just criticism, founded on 
the bad models for horses which the artist had recourse to in 
Mexico whilst engaged in his task; and although a due degree of 
strict adherence to historical portraiture did not permit him to 
exalt too much the personal characteristics of the king, he has 
nevertheless contrived to infuse a great deal of power into the statue 
so as to entitle it to a fair comparison with some of the best European 
equestrian works in bronze. All the minor parts of the figures and 
their decorations are finished with the utmost neatness, and another 


sO | 


oe 


mn 


Ty 
‘ 
i 


| 


Uy 


Ly 


jj, 


> 


Ls 


iG 


FEATHERED SERPENTS—VICEROY’S PORTRAITS. 267 


proof is given, in this statue of the genius possessed by the natives 
for the imitative arts. It was the work of Tolsa, and was first 
opened to public view on its pedestal in the plaza, in the year 1803, 
under the viceroyal government of Iturrigaray. . 

In a corner of this court yard, on the left of the portal, amid a 
quantity of ancient lumber and relics, are the sacrificial stone and 
the gigantic idol statue of Teoyaomiqui, described in the first volume 
of this work. Here, too, are the huge serpent images, carved from 
basalt, which are presumed to have been used in the worship of 
Quetzalcoatl — the ‘‘ feathered serpent,’? — the “ god of the air.” 

After an examination of the massive relics which lie in the court 
yard of the University, we ascend by a broad stone staircase to the 
corridor surrounding the quadrangle on the second floor. The 
lower story of this edifice is occupied by the college chapel and the 
hall or recitation room, whose lofty ceiling and windows, gloomy 
walls, and carved oaken seats and pulpit, remind the stranger of the 
fine old monastic chambers in similar institutions in Europe. 

The apartments of the second floor open upon the broad corridor 
under a light and tasteful arcade, and several rooms on the northern 
side are devoted to the national collections, which, at the period of 
our visit to Mexico in 1841 and 1842 were badly arranged and 
classified. The salary devoted to the curator was scarcely adequate 
to support him, and he probably paid more attention to the politics 
of the present day than to the antiquities of the past. Neverthe- 
less, we found him to be an intelligent gentleman, fond of the relics, 
images and legends of the Aztecs. He would, doubtless, have 
organized the valuable collection had he been suitably aided, 
recompensed, or enabled to devote the whole of his time to the 
archaiology of his country. 

The first apartment on this side of the building is a sort of 
Spanish lumber room, the wall of which is friezed with a series 
of the viceroys, whilst, in a corner, stand the fragments of a 
throne, waiting, perhaps, the order for their reconstruction upon 
the ruins of the presidential chair. Hard by this royal relic, in ap- 
propriate contrast, is an unfinished bas relief of a trophy of liberty; 
and above the sculpture, suspended against the wall in a rough pine 
coffin, hangs an Indian mummy, which was exhumed in the fields 
of Tlaltelolco north of the capital. Another side of this saloon is 
occupied by full length portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella. In the 
next chamber, west of this, the mass of the smaller Aztec relics has 
been collected and preserved in cases. A small library, containing 
some ancient manuscripts, and the splendid work of Lord Kings- 


VASES FROM TULA. 


WAV.LSIG “ONIX ‘SdINV.LS ‘SddIld ‘SLAHOLVH ‘SYSVW OULZV 


YOKE, KNIFE, SMALL VASES AND ALTARS USED IN AZTEC SACRIFICES 


21 


CORTEZ— PORTRAIT— ARMOR——PEDRO DE ALVARADO. 273 


borough on Mexican antiquities, are preserved in this apartment, 
while on the surrounding shelves, are deposited specimens of the 
pottery, vases, pipes, idols, images, bows, arrows, axes, masks, 
sacrificial instruments, beads and altars of the Aztecs. 

Around the frieze of this room, as around that of the preceding, 
are portraits of Mexican viceroys, at the head of which is the pic- 
ture of the conqueror Hernando Cortéz, from which the engraving 
in these volumes has been accurately copied. Its authenticity is un- 
questionable, for its history has been carefully traced to the period 
of the third viceroy, Don Gaston de Peralta, Marques de Falces. 
This portrait represents the hero of the conquest differently from 
any other picture we have found either engraved or in oil, and ex- 
hibits the mingled air of elevated veneration and command, of 
firmness and dignity, reflection and resolute action, which are the 
chief historical characteristics of this personage. In a corner, be- 
neath the portrait, is a plain, unornamented suit of steel armor, 
which belonged to the hero. Its small dimensions convey no favor- 
able impression of the hero’s size or strength. The armor, and 
patent of nobility granted by Charles V. to Pedro de Alvarado, the 
companion of Cortéz, are also preserved in this saloon. The royal 
document is exceedingly interesting from the fact that it contains 
the autographs of the emperor and of Cortéz, who signed it as El 
Marques del Valle de Oajaca.! Near these relics of two of the 
leaders of the conquering army, preserved religiously under glass 
in a golden frame, is the crimson silken banner, bearing the image 
of the Virgin, crowned with a golden coronet and surrounded with 
twelve stars, under which that army is alleged by the antiquarians 
to have marched the second time against the Aztec capital. 

In the apartment west of this, and facing on the plaza del Vola- 
dor, are the collections in natural history, which have been chosen 
apparently, rather as curiosities than for scientific purposes. The 
specimens of birds, beasts and reptiles, are indifferently preserved 
and classified, and even the collection of minerals, which, in Mexico, 
ought to be of the most perfect character, scarcely deserves mention 
as an important illustrative cabinet. 


The number of small images, which are usually called idols, con- 
tained in the cases of the principal saloon is very large, and speci- 
mens are presented from most parts of the territory comprised in the 

1 This armor and patent of nobility, were offered to the author of this work in 
1842, before they were purchased by the government, for one hundred and forty 


dollars, and, at his recommendation, they were tendered, as a first choice, to the na- 
tional authorities who bought them. 


O14 IMAGES 


VASES ——TEZCOCO. 


empire of the Aztec sovereigns, as well as from Mechoacan. Some 
of the finest of these, both large and small, are exhibited in the 
plates annexed to this section; and we do not describe them mi- 
nutely or singly, because they depend for their interest upon their 
forms, which are better depicted in drawings than language. Most 
of these were carefully delineated and measured by the author of 
this work himself, and their accuracy may be confidently relied on. 

Two of the most beautiful and rare objects comprised in this col- 
lection, are the terra-catta funeral vases, one of which is represented 
in the accompanying engraving. It was exhumed some years ago 
in the northern suburb of the capital, known as St. Juan Tlaltelolco, 
the neighborhood of the ancient site of one of the Aztec teocallis. 
It is one foot ten inches high, and one foot three and a half inches 
in diameter. Its upper portion was filled with human skulls, and 
the lower with bones of the rest of the frame, while the top was 
carefully covered with the circular lid, which is given in the plate. 
The Indian head, winged and crowned with a circlet of twisted 
bands and feathers, the graceful handles, and the semicircle of sun- 
flowers and ears of corn, which curves beneath the central orna- 
ment, will give the reader an accurate idea of the reliefs with which 
this vase is adorned. Besides these symbols of eternity, fruition 
and fullness, the vessel still exhibits the brilliant colors of blue, ver- 
million, lake, yellow and brown, with which it was originally tinted. 

Some beautiful specimens of the ancient musical instruments of 
the Aztecs, are also preserved in this museum, and correct draw- 
ings of their flageolets, whistles, drums and rattles, will be found 
in the engravings. 


TEZCOCO—TESCOCINGO. 


We turn naturally from the ancient capital of the Aztec empire to 
the remains of art and architecture which are yet found on the site 
of Tezcoco, the second city in the realm, and in its vicinity. It 
was in this place that Cortéz prepared for his second assault upon 
the city of Tenochtitlan or Mexico, and here he put together and 
launched on the lake the vessels which he had caused to be fashioned 
in Tlascala on the other side of the mountains that bound the eastern 
edge of the valley of Mexico. The spot where these vehicles of his 
troops across the waters of 'I'ezcoco were first deposited in their pro- 
per element is still pointed out by the inhabitants, and is known as 
El] Puente de las Brigantinas, though it is now more than a mile 
from the shore of the lake. ! 


1 The waters of the lake, it will be recollected, have fallen greatly since the conquest. 


FUNERAL VASE AND COVER. 


2 “aig 
rene 
ae Bei 


aa 


PALACE—TROUGH —MASSIVE MOUNDS. Q75 


In the north-west section of the modern town of Tezcoco, on the 
top of a shapeless mass of pottery, bricks, mortar and earth, which 
is thickly overgrown with aloes, there are several large slabs of 
basaltic rock, neatly squared and laid due north and south. Ac- 
cording to the legends of the spot this is the site of one of the 
royal residences, and like most of the antiquities of Mexico, is con- 
nected with the name of the best known emperor, as the palace of 
Montezuma. When Mr. Poinsett visited Tezcoco in 1825, this 
heap had not been pillaged for modern architectural purposes, as 
much as it has been since that period. Among the ruins of the 
supposed palace he then found, a regularly arched and well built 
passage, sewer, or aqueduct, which was formed of square stones 
the size of bricks, cemented with the strong mortar which was 
so much used by the Indians in all their works. In the door 
of one of the rooms he noticed the remains of a “ very flat arch,”’ 
the stones comprising which were of prodigious size and weight. 
On this spot, some years ago, was found the sculptured basin, 
which, at the period of our visit, had been transferred to and pre- 
served in the collection of the Ex-Condé del Pefiasco in the city of 
Mexico. 


—— 
= a 


TROUGH FROM TEZCOCO. 


In the southern part of Tezcoco, are the massive remains of three 
vast pyramids, whose forms are still remarkably perfect. They suc- 
ceed each other in a direct line from north to south, and, according 
to our measurement, are about four hundred feet in extent, on each 


- of their fronts, along the base line. They are built partly of burned 


and partly of sun dried bricks, mixed up with fragments of pottery 
and thick coverings of cement, through which neat canals had been 


276 TESCOCINGO— HILL——ITS ANCIENT ADORNMENTS. 


moulded to carry off the water from the upper terrace. Bernal 
Diaz del Castillo informs us, that the chief teocallt of Tezcoco was 
ascended by one hundred and seventeen steps; and, from the quan- 
tity of obsidian fragments, images, vessels and heads of idols we 
found upon the sides of these structures, it is not unlikely, that they, 
like the teocallis of the capital were devoted to the same bloody and 
impious rites. In some of the private houses of this town, many 
larger idols or images cut from basalt are still preserved, and in 
1825, Mr. Poinsett saw at the residence of the commandant several 
of these figures, which were better formed and designed than most 
of the Indian statues he had previously encountered in his Mexican 
travels. 


TESCOCINGO. 


About three miles across the gently sloping levels which spread 
out east of the town of Tezcoco, a sharp, precipitous conical moun- 
tain rises abruptly from the plain, which is stripped of the forests 
that once probably clothed its sides, and is now only covered with 
a thick growth of nopals, bushes and aloes. From the quantity of 
Indian remains found on this elevation and in its vicinity, there is 
no doubt that it was the site of an Aztec palace, or was connected 
with the adjacent plain by some architectural works that have been 
destroyed in the centuries that have elapsed since the conquest. 
The traveller climbs this steep mountain with great labor, and finds 
nearly every part of it covered with the dédris of ancient pottery 
and obsidian; and, in many parts of his ascent, he is aided by the 
remains of the spiral road, cut in the solid rock, which evidently 
once wound from its base to its top. Fifty feet below the summit, 
looking exactly north, the massive stone of the mountain has been 
cut into seats surrounding a recess leading to a steep wall which is 
said to have been covered with a Toltec or Aztec calendar. The 
sculptures upon the rock have, however, been destroyed by the In- 
dians, who cut through it as soon as they found the spot an object 
of interest to strangers. These simple and superstitious beings 
imagined that the quest of gold, alone, could induce travellers to 
leave the capital, cross the lake, and toil up to the summit of this 


elevation, and, accordingly they bored through the carved rock to: 


obtain the buried treasure, until they have formed a hole in the 
mountain, which is now the hiding place and probably the home of 
a large number of squalid wretches. On the absolute top of the 
mountain no traces of an edifice are now observable; but as the Span- 


iards supposed it had been desecrated by Indian rites in the olden — 


ANCIENT BELLEVUE AND RESERVOIR. OT 


time, it has been sanctified by the erection of a cross, from whose 
feet the whole valley of Mexico, with its lakes, plains, towns and 
majestic panorama of encircling mountains, bursts on the sight of 
the wearied traveller. 


Returning to the recess from the summit, and winding thence by 
a spiral path down the eastern slopes of the hill, we find the road 
suddenly ended by a wall which plunges precipitously down the 
mountain for about two hundred feet. At this termination of the 
pathway, cut in the solid rock, we found another recess, surrounded 
with seats, while, in the centre of the area, was a circular basin, a 
yard and a half in diameter, and three feet deep, into which water 
was formerly introduced, through the small aperture in the square 
pipe which is delineated in the engraving. 


i 


uy 


1 EST ea 


{20s Re 
rN 


vena TTA F : 1 A Tay ry T 


fl 


om» 


ANCIENT RESERVOIR. 


This basin has, of course, been also connected with the fame of 
the emperor, and is known as “‘ Montezuma’s bath.”’ Its true use, 
however, is perfectly evident to those who are less fanciful or an- 
_tiquarian than the generality of visiters. The picturesque view 


from this spot, over a small plain set in a frame of the surrounding 
23 


278 TEZCOCAN SPLENDOR— BOSQUE DEL CONTADOR. 


mountains and glens which border the eastern side of Tescocingo, 
undoubtedly made this recess a favorite resort for the royal person- 
ages at whose expense these costly works were made. From the 
surrounding seats, they enjoyed a delicious prospect over the lovely 
but secluded scenery, while, in the basin, at their feet, were gath- 
ered the waters of a neighboring spring, which, whilst refreshing 
them after their promenade on the mountain, gurgled out of its stony 
channel and fell in a mimic cascade over the precipitous cliff that 
terminated their path. It was to this shady spot that they no doubt 
retired in the afternoon, when the sun was hot on the west of the 
mountain, and here the sovereign and his court, in all probability, 
enjoyed the repose and privacy which were denied them amid the 
bustle of the city. . Antiquarianism would be greatly assisted in its re- 
searches and conjectures, if it recollected that the nature of civilized 
men is the same in all ages, and that it 1s easier to judge the archi- 
tectural remains of our ancestors by this standard than by the fanci- 
ful or classical rules, which they are dramatically disposed to conjure 
up in order to interpret the past. 


The hill or mountain of Tescocingo is connected with another 
hill on the east by a tall embankment about two hundred feet high, 
upon whose level top, — which may be crossed by three persons 
abreast, on horseback, — are the remains of an ancient aqueduct, 
built of baked clay, the pipes of which are now as perfect as on the 
day they were first laid. The water was brought hither by a canal 
around the hill to which it is connected by the embankment; while, 
east of this, and uniting the last hill with another elevation, there is 
a second aqueduct raised on an embankment, which was fed by 
other aqueducts and canals that formerly conducted the water from 
the eastern mountains about three leagues distant. 


Such are some of the remains of 'l'ezcocan sumptuousness, in the 
neighborhood of the ancient capital of this region; and, together 
with the ancient grove of cypresses, known as El] Bosque del Con- 
tador, lying across the levels north-west of ‘Tezcoco, may be re- 
garded as the most remarkable relics of the princes and people of 
the Tezcocan monarchy. The grove of the Contador is formed by 
double rows of gigantic cypresses, about five hundred in number, 
arranged in a square corresponding with the points of the compass 
and enclosing an area of nearly ten acres. At the north-western 
point of this quadrangle another double row of lordly cypresses runs 
westwardly towards a dyke, north of which there is a deep oblong 


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PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN. 


PONDS — LAKES — ARBORS — TEOTIHUACAN. 279 


tank, neatly walled and filled with water. From the soft spongy 
character of the soil in the centre of the great quadrangular grove — 
which it is impossible for any one to cross without danger of being 
mired in the unsubstantial morass,—it is supposed that the vast 
area was once occupied by a lake, whose waters were probably for- 
ever renewed by the hydraulic works we have already described in 
the neighborhood of Tescocingo. Along the raised banks, and 
beneath the shadows of the double line of majestic trees, were the 
walks and arbors in which Nezahualcoyotl and his courtiers amused 
themselves. The ponds and lakes were filled with fish and fre- 
quented by the wild fowl that now cover the margins of the Mexi- 
can lakes; while the same benignant sky and delicious climate that 
bless the descendants of the Spaniards, reigned then, as now, over 


the dusky children of the soil. } 


PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN. 


A ride on horseback of about three hours at a pleasant pace, will 
bring the traveller from Tezcoco to the village of St. Juan, lying in 
an extensive level bordered on all sides by ridges and mountain 
spurs, except towards the east, where a depression in the chain 
leads into the plains of Otumba, upon which Cortéz fought so re- 
markable a battle when pursued by the victorious Aztecs. In the 
centre of the levels of St. Juan are the two remarkable pyamids of 
Teotihuacan, —the Tonatiuh-Ytzagual, or “house of the sun,” 
and the Meztli-Ytzagual, or ‘house of the moon.”’ These vast 
masses first break upon the sight as the ridge is crossed. At that 
distance the foliage and bushes that cover them are not easily dis- 
cerned, and the perfect figure of the original structure seems to be 
revealed in all its freshness. As the objects are approached, how- 
ever, the work of time upon the monuments becomes evident. The 
sharp pyramidal lines are all broken. Aloes, nopals, magueys, 
mesquite and parasites crawl and cling over every part of the ruined 
heaps ; and the whole mass resembles a crumbling but gigantic pile 
of rocks and earth, which is scarcely distinguishable from the adja- 
cent hills until its structure is closely examined. 


1 The reader will find an interesting account in Spanish, of the residence of Neza- 
hualcoyotl at Tescocingo, extracted from Ixtlilxochitl’s history of the Chichimecas, 
in the third volume of Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico, page 430. The 
hill or mountain described in this section, is doubtless the same one referred to by 
the Indian historian ; and it is to the Vandalism of Fray Zumarraga, the archbishop, 
that we are indebted for the destruction of one of the most graceful and elegant monu- 
ments of Indian civilization. 


NN 
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The field is covered with trees, 
bushes, nopals, and magueys. 
There are also numerous Ves- 
tiges of Mounds, not indicated 
on this plan. 


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PLAN 
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HOUSES OF SUN AND MOON—PATH OF THE DEAD. 281 


Ascending the one hundred and twenty-one feet of the house of 
the Sun, we reach a level platform on the summit, whence a charm- 
ing prospect extends for many miles to the south and east over cul- 
tivated fields. At the southern base of this pyramid, which measures 
six hundred and eighty-two feet, there are four small mounds, and 
beyond these there is a range of lesser tumuli running towards an 
elevated square of mounds lying between the stream west of Teoti- 
huacan and the present road to Otumba. On the west front, five 
tumult surround an oval mound whose centre is depressed, and all 
of these jut out westwardly towards a line of similar grave-like ele- 
vations lying on both sides of the avenue that leads to the house of the 
Moon. This road is the Micoatl, or path of the dead, which the 
ancient writers locate in the valley of San Juan. 

The other pyramid, or house of the Moon is smaller, and like its 
neighbor is composed of rock, stones, pottery and cement,— cov- 
ered with the debris of obsidian and terra catta images which lie 
scattered from the top to the base amid the tangled aloes and creep- 
ers that have struck their roots deeply into the crevices. The house 
of the Sun is not known to have any cavity within its body, but in 
the house of the Moon, between the second and third terraces, a 
narrow passage has been detected, through which two wells or 
sunken chambers, about fifteen feet deep, may be reached by crawl- 
ing on hands and knees over an inclined plain for a distance of 
about eight yards. The walls of this cryptic entrance, and of the 
sunken chamber are made of the common sun dried bricks, but 
there are no remains of sculpture, painting, or bodies to reward an 
antiquarian for groping through the dark and dusty aperture. 

South of this pyramid of the Moon, is the Micoatl or path of the 
dead, to which we have already alluded. Two elliptical elevations 
rise at the south-east and south-west corner of the Teocalli, upon 
each of which there are three mounds, whilst their diameters are 
bisected by other rectilinear elevations upon each of which there 
are five similar mounds. Four circular and one square mound lie 
within the area of this inclosure, and the whole appears to form a 
massive portal of tumuli to the majestic pyramid. A long double 
line of minor mounds stretches away to the south on the sides of 
the avenue, until all traces of them are lost in the field in front of 
the temple of the sun with whose groups of tumuli this path was in 
all likelihood formerly united. The student will obtain a better idea 
of the localities of these remains by examining the plan which was 
carefully prepared by the author, on the spot, in 1842. At B, on 
the plan, there is a large globular mass of granite measuring nine- 


282 CARVED PILLAR— PILLAR AT OTUMBA. 


' teen feet eight inches in circumference, upon which there is some 
rude carving which has been found to bear some resemblance to the 
Aztec figure of the sun; — and in the semicircular enclosure among 
the tumuli, at C, is placed the sculptured granite stone, represented 
in the annexed cut. It lies due east and west. The dark shadow 


ell 1 


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at B, represents a sink or hollow three inches deep at the sides, and 
six at the top and bottom. ‘This is known as the “‘fainting stone,” 
as it is alleged that all who recline on its surface are sure to expe- 
rience lassitude, or loose animation for a while! 


SS 


OTUMBA. 


This place is famous in the ancient history of Mexico, but no 
remains of importance have been found in its vicinity or within 
the limits of the village. When Mr. Poinsett visited it during 
his residence in Mexico as Envoy from the United States, he ob- 
served no relic of the past worthy of examination or record except 
the fragment of a pillar represented in the annexed drawing. 


z Sa pee So 


PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. 283 


THE PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. 


About eighteen miles south of Cuernavaca, in the State of Mexi- 
co, there is a cerro or hill, known as Xochicalco or the “hill of 
flowers,” whose summit is occupied by the remains of an ancient 
stone pyramid. The traveller reaches this eminence after travelling 
over a wide plain intersected by deep barrancas, and almost entirely 
denuded of trees and shrubbery. The base of this hill is surrounded 
by the remains of a deep wide ditch, and its top is attained by five 
spiral terraces, supported by walls of stone joined with cement. At 
suitable distances from each other, along the edge of this winding 
path are the remains of bulwarks fashioned like the bastions of a 
fortification. On the summit there is a wide extensive level, the 
eastern part of which is occupied by three truncated cones, resem- 
bling the smaller mounds found among the pyramids of Teotihua- 
can. On the other three sides of the esplenade there are other 
masses of stones, which may have also been portions of similar 
tumuli. The stones of which these lesser mounds were constructed 
have evidently been nicely shaped and covered with a coat of stucco. 

Passing upward, amid tangled trees and vines, along the last ter- 
race, and through the cornfield which is cultivated on the plain at 
top by an Indian ranchero, the traveller at length stands before the 
remains of the elegant structure that once crowned the summit with 
its carved and massive architecture. The reports of engineers who 
visited this pyramid in years long past, and the legends of the 
neighborhood, declared that it originally consisted of five stories, 
placed upon each other at regular intervals and separated by narrow 
platforms. But of all these, nothing now remains except portions 
of the first body, which is formed of cut porphyry and covered with 
the singular emblems which are accurately represented in the an- 
nexed plate of the north-western angle. 

Amid the neglect of the viceroyal government, and the revolu- 
tionary disturbances subsequent to the rebellion against Spain, this 
beautiful monument of ancient art, seems to have been entirely for- 
gotten, save by the neighboring haciendados or planters, who used 
it as a quarry, from which they might supply the wants of their 
estates without the trouble or expense of a stone cutter. In the 
middle of the eighteenth century the fine terraces were yet perfect. 
But, as the country became settled in the neighborhood, the farmers 
began to pilfer from the mass, and, not long before we visited it in 
1842, an adjacent land owner had carried off large loads of the 
sculptured stones to build a dam in a neighboring ravine, for the 
use of his cattle. 


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HILL OF XOCHICALCO —ITS STRUCTURES. 285 


The story of this pyramid that has been thus far spared, is _rec- 
tangular; and, facing north, south, east and west, in exact corres- 
pondence with the cardinal points, it measures sixty-four feet on 
its northern front above the plinth, and fifty-eight on the western. 
The distance between the plinth and frieze is about ten feet, the 
breadth of the frieze is three feet and a half, and the height of the 
cornice one foot and five inches. The most perfect portion is the 
northern front; and, here, the carving in relief, which is between 
three and four inches deep, is most distinctly visible. The massive 
stones, — some of which are seven feet eleven inches long, by two 
feet nine inches wide; five feet two inches long, and two feet six 
inches broad, and five feet long, two feet seven inches high, and 
four feet seven inches broad, — are all laid upon each other without 
cement, and kept together simply by the pressure and gravity of the 
general architecture. These dimensions of the fragments of so 
splendid an edifice will give the reader an idea of the labor and in- 
genuity which were employed in its construction. For it must be 
remembered, that not only was the Indian skill taxed in the design 
and shaping of the stones in the immediate neighborhood, but that 
the weighty materials were drawn from a considerable distance, and 


_borne up a hill three hundred feet in height, without the use of horses. 


The terraces supporting the spiral path, and their bastion-like bul- 
warks, were subjects of equal labor; while the broad deep ditch, sur- 
rounding the whole, was in itself a work exacting the most patient 
industry. Few nations have probably devoted more time and toil to 
a work which was perhaps partly religious and partly defensive. 
These are the external works upon the Cerro of Xochicalco, but 
it appears from good authority, and from the report of the neighbor- 
hood, that the hill itself was partly hollowed into chambers. Some. 


_ years since a party of gentlemen, under the orders of government, 


explored these subterranean retreats, and, after groping through 
dark and narrow passages, whose side walls are covered with a 
hard and glistening gray cement, they came to three entrances be- 
tween two enormous pillars cut from the rock of which the hill is 
formed. ‘Through these portals they entered a chamber, whose 
roof was a cupola of regular shape, built of stones placed in circles, 
while at the top of the dome was an aperture, which probably led 
to the surface of the earth or the summit of the pyramid. Nebel, 
who visited the ruins scme years ago, relates an Indian tradition, 
that this aperture ascended immediately above an altar placed in 
this chamber, and that the sun’s rays fell directly on the centre of 
the shrine when that luminary was vertical! 


CHAPTER: Vir 


STATE OF MECHOACAN — BOUNDARIES — ELEVATIONS — VOLCANO 
OF JORULLO — THEORIES OF HUMBOLDT AND LYELL — PRESENT 
CONDITION — RIVERS OF MECHOACAN— CLIMATE — HEALTH — 
INDIANS — DEPARTMENTS — AGRICULTURE — TOWNS — MINES — 
JALISCO — BOUNDARIES — POPULATION — RIVERS — LAKES — 
DIVISIONS — MANUFACTURES — AGRICULTURE — FACTORIES — 
GUADALAJARA — TOWNS —SAN JUAN DE LOS LAGOS—TEPIC — 
SAN BLAS— MINES — ISLANDS — MINING REGION — INDIANS — 
CHARACTER AND HABITS — CHURCH AND SCHOOL — EDUCATION — 
— BISHOPRIC — TERRITORY OF COLIMA—EXTENT— CLIMATE — 
PRODUCTIONS — TOWNS, ' 3 | 


THE STATE OF MECHOACAN. 


* Tur State of Mechoacan is the old Spanish Intendencia of Val- 
lodolid, and includes a great part of the ancient Indian Kingdom 
of Mechoacan, or Mechoacan of the Tarascos. It is bounded on 
the north by Guanajuato, north-easterly of Querétaro, south-easterly 
by Mexico, westerly by Jalisco, and south-westerly, for a short dis- 
tance, by the Pacific. 

This State les chiefly on the western slope of the Cordillera, and is 
cut up by hills and genial vallies. The highest point within its limits 
is the Peak of Tancitaro, which, in all probability, is an extinct vol- 
cano. East of this, and south of the village of Ario, the Voleano of 
Jorullo burst forth on the night of the 29th of September, 1759. 

The great region to which this mountain belongs has been 
already described in our account of the geological structure of 
Mexico. The plain of Malpais forms part of an elevated platform, 
between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and is 
bounded by hills composed of basalt, trachyte, and volcanic tuff, 
clearly indicating that the country had previously, though probably 
at a remote period, been the theatre of igneous action. From the 
era of the discovery of the New World to the middle of the last 
century, the district had remained undisturbed, and the space, now 
the site of the volcano, which is thirty leagues distant from the 
nearest sea, was occupied by fertile plains of sugar cane and indigo, 
and watered by the two brooks, Cuitimba and San Pedro. In the 
month of June, 1759, hollow sounds of an alarming nature were 
heard, and earthquakes succeeded each other for two months, until, 
in September, flames issued from the ground, and fragments of 
burning rocks were thrown to prodigious heights. 


VOLCANO OF JORULLO. 287 


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THE VOLCANO OF JORULLO. 


‘‘ Six volcanic cones, composed of scorie and fragmentary lava, 
were formed on the line of a chasm which ran in a direction from 
N. N. E. toS. 8S. W. The least of these cones was 300 feet in 
height, and Jorullo, the central volcano, was elevated 1,600 feet 
above the level of the plain. It sent forth great streams of basal- 
tic lava, containing included fragments of rocks, and its ejections 
did not cease till the month of February, 1760. 

‘‘ Humboldt visited the country more than forty years after this 
occurrence, and was informed by the Indians, that when they re- 
turned, long after the catastrophe, to the plain, they found the 
ground uninhabitable from the excessive heat. When he himself 
visited the place, there appeared around the base of the cones, and 
spreading from them, as from a centre, over an extent of four square 
miles, a mass of matter of a convex form, about 550 feet high at its 
junction with the cones, and gradually sloping from them in all 
directions towards the plain. This mass was still in a heated state, 
the temperature in the fissures being on the decrease from year to 
year, but in 1780 it was still sufficient to light a cigar at the depth 
of a few inches. On this slightly convex protuberance, the slope 


of which must form an angle of about 6° with the horizon, were 
2K 


288 THEORIES OF HUMBOLDT AND LYELL. 


thousands of flattish conical mounds, from six to nine feet high, 
which as well as large fissures traversing the plain, acted as fume- 
roles, giving out clouds of sulphuric acid and hot aqueous vapor. 
The two small rivers before mentioned disappeared during the erup 
tion, losing themselves below the eastern extremity of the plain, and 
reappearing as hot springs at its western limit. Humboldt attributed 
the convexity of the plain to inflation below; supposing the ground, 
for four square miles in extent, to have risen in the shape of a blad- 
der to the elevation of 550 feet above the plain in the highest part. 
But this theory is by no means borne out by the facts described ; 
and it is the more necessary to scrutinize closely the proofs relied 
on, because the opinion of Humboldt appears to have been received 
as if founded upon direct observation, and has been made the 
ground work of other bold and extraordinary theories. Mr. Scrope 
has suggested that the phenomena may be accounted for far more 
naturally by supposing that lava flowed simultaneously from the dif- 
ferent orifices, and principally from Jorullo, united with a sort of 
pool or lake. As it poured forth on a surface previously flat, it 
would, if its liquidity was not very great, remain thickest and 
- deepest near its source, and diminish in bulk from thence towards 
the limits of the space which it covered, Fresh supplies were 
probably emitted successively during the course of an eruption 
which lasted a year; and some of these, resting on those first 
emitted, might only spread to a small distance from the foot of the 
cone, where they would necessarily accumulate to a great height. 
‘<The showers, also, of loose and pulverulent matter from the six 
craters, and principally from Jorullo, would be composed of heavier 
and more bulky particles near the cones, and would raise the ground 
at their base, where, mixing with rain, they might have given rise 
to the stratum of black clay which is described as covering the lava. 
‘<The small conical mounds called ‘ hornitos’ or little ovens may 
resemble those five or six small hillocks which existed in 1823 on 
the Vesuvian lava, and sent forth columns of vapor, having been 
produced by the disengagement of elastic fluids heaving up small 
dome-shaped masses of lava. The fissures mentioned by Humboldt 
as of frequent occurrence, are such as might naturally accompany 
the consolidation of a thick bed of lava, contracting as it congeals ; 
and the appearance of rivers is the usual result of the occupation 
of the lower part of the valley or plain by lava, of which there are 
many beautiful examples in the old lava currents of Auvergne. ‘The 
heat of the ‘hornitos’ is stated to have diminished from the first ; 
and Mr. Bullock, who visited the spot many years after Humboldt, 


PRESENT CONDITION—RIVERS OF MECHOACAN. 289 


found the temperature of the hot spring very low,—a fact which 
seems Clearly to indicate the gradual congelation of a subjacent bed 
of lava which, from its immense thickness, may have been enabled 
to retain its heat for half a century. ‘The reader may be reminded, 
that when we thus suppose the lava near the volcano to have been, 
together with the ejected ashes, more than 500 feet in depth, we 
merely assign a thickness which the current of Skaptar Jokul 
attained in some places in 1783. 

“¢ Another argument adduced in the support of the theory of infla- 
tion from below, was, the hollow sound made by the steps of a horse 
upon the plain; which, however, proves nothing more than that the 
materials of which the convex mass is composed are light and 
porous. The sound called “‘rimbombo” by the Italians, is very 
commonly returned by made ground when sharply struck, and has 
been observed not only on the sides of Vesuvius and of other vol- 
canic cones where a cavity is below, but also in plains, such as the 
Campagna di Roma, composed in a great measure of tuff and other 
porous and volcanic rocks, The reverberation, however, may be 
assisted by grottoes and caverns, for these may be as numerous in 
the lavas of Jorullo as in many of those of Etna; but their exist- 
ence would lend no countenance to the hypothesis of a great arched 
cavity, four square miles in extent, and in the centre 550 feet high.! 

‘¢ Mr. Burkhart, a German director of mines, who examined Jo- 
rullo in 1827, ascertained that there had been no eruption there 
since Humboldt’s visit in 1803. He went to the bottom of the 
crater, and observed a slight evolution of sulphurous acid vapors, 
but the ‘‘hornitos” had ceased entirely to give forth steam. Dur- 
ing the twenty-four years intervening between his visit and that of 
Humboldt, vegetation had made great progress on the flanks of the 
new hills, and the rich soil of the surrounding country was once 
more covered with luxuriant crops of sugar cane and indigo, and 
there was an abundant growth of natural underwood on all the 
uncultivated tracts.”’ ? 


The State of Mechoacan is extraordinarily rich in rivers and 
streams. The Lerma, Balsas, Zitacuaro, Huetamo, Cluranteco, 
Marquéz, Aztala, Tlalpujahua, and some smaller streamlets and 
brooks are found in its vallies ; while the lakes and ponds of Cuizco 
or Aaron, Patzcuaro, Huango, Tanguato, and Huaniqueo afford 


'See Scrope on Volcanoes, p. 267. 
2LLeonhard and Brown’s Neues Jarbuch, 1835, p. 36. See Lyell’s Geol., Am 
Ed., 1 vol., p. 345. 


290 cLIMATE — INDIANS — DEPARTMENTS — AGRICULTURE. 


supplies to numerous neighborhoods. The climate of Mechoacan is 
regular, not liable to extraordinary or sudden changes, and remark- 
ably genial. On the Pacific coast and in its vicinity, as in the 
other middle and southern States of the Confederacy, agues and 
intermittent fevers prevail; but the population seems to have in- 
creased considerably since the beginning of this century, and even 
in a larger proportion than in some other parts of Mexico. In 1849, 
the number of inhabitants was estimated to be not less than 590,000. 
Three Indian tribes still dwell within its borders: Ist, the Taras- 
cos; 2d, the Otomies; 3d, the Chichimecas. The whole southern 
half of the State is peopled with Indians. 


Mechoacan is divided into 4 departments and 62 municipalities, 
1. Department del Norte, with 14 municipalities. 


2. a del Oriente, with 15 municipalities. 
3. ee del Sur, with 11 municipalities. 
A, a del Poniente, with 22 municipalities. 


These 4 departments contain the three cities of Moretta, Patz- 
cuaro, and TzintzouTzan ;—the three towns of Zitacuaro, Za- 
"mora, ie Charo ;— 256 wieess 333 haciendas, and 1,356 ranchos, 
which are divided among 83 parishes. 

The agricultural productions of Mechoacan are siniland in charac- 
ter to those of the other Western States of Mexico lying within 
the same longitude. The best sugar plantations are about 12 
leagues from Patzcuaro. At the foot of Jorullo, cotton, indigo, 
cacao and sugar are planted; and mainoc or cassava, potatoes and 
yams are sown in genial spots, whilst maiz, wheat, barley and ma- 
gueys are cultivated in the higher and cooler regions. ‘The finest 
tropical fruits are raised in the warm portions of the State. 

The capital of Mechoacan is Morelia, sometimes called Vallado- 
lid, or Valladolid de Mechoacan. Its modern title is derived from 
the name of the insurgent leader Morelos. 

More ia lies 6,398 feet above the level of the sea, in latitude 
19° 42’ North, 103° 12’ 15” W. long. from Paris,—between the 
two streams which water the Valley of Olid. It is a small, but 
handsome town, possessing some fine churches, and a charming 
passeo and alameda. The climate is mild and wholesome, but snow 
falls occasionally during the winter. 

ParzcuAro lies on the south-eastern bank of the lake of that name. 

TZINTZOUTZAN 1s about 4 leagues from Patzcuaro, in a northerly 
direction, upon the banks of the same lake. It was once the capi- 
tal of the ancient Indian Kingdom of Mechoacan, but is now only a 


TOWNS — MINES—JALISCO—- BOUNDARIES. 291 


small village of 2,000 inhabitants, who have nevertheless bestowed 
on it the title of —‘“‘ City.”? Some relics of the Tarascan architec- 
ture are said to be found at this place, but we do not possess any 
authentic accounts or drawings of them. 

ZitacuaRo is the capital of the old mining district 7 leagues 
south of Angangueo, 6,451 feet above the sea, and contains about 
2000 inhabitants. Many small Indian villages are also found in the 
neighborhood, but they do not require special notice. 

ANGANGUEO is a mining town 7 leagues south of Tlalpujahua, 
with about 1,900 inhabitants. 

San Pedro y San Pablo de Tlalpujahua, also a mining village and 
district, 35 leagues north north-west from Mexico, eastward of 
Morelia, and about 6 leagues south of the left bank of the Lerma. 
It lies in a beautiful mountain region at the foot of the Cerro del 
Gallo, 8,386 feet above the sea. Two leagues north of Tlalpuja- 
hua, is the Hacienda de Tepetongo, remarkable for its warm springs, 
which rising amid volcanic rocks, maintain a temperature of 27° 
Reaumeur ; and are freely resorted to by the neighboring Indians. 
Cuizco; Huaniqueo; Zamora; Tancuancicuaro; Tarecuato; Tla- 
zazalca, Tanguato, are the remaining towns and villages in this part 
of the country deserving mention. In the Department del Worte, 
we find Sirisicuaro; Santa Anna; Araron; Copandaro; Teremen- 
do; Pareachecuaro, and Tirepiteo. In the Department del Oriente 
lie San Felipé; Patambero; Enadio; Orocutui; Tusantla; Clir- 
angangueo; Tichiqueo; Huetano Pungarahuato; and Cayuca. In 
the Department del Sur, are Ario; Tacambaro; Turicato; Chur- 
umuco; Santiago Coalcoman; Uruapan and Tancitaro. In the 
Department del Poinente, we find Chilchote, with about 4,700 in- 
habitants, and Tincuindui. 


The mining districts of Mechoacan are Tlalpujahua, Angangueo, 
and Ozumatlan. Formerly, the mines of Zitacuaro, Ingnaran, and 
a few other districts were somewhat renowned for their value; but, 
at present, they are either entirely abandoned or only slightly worked. 


THE STATE OF JALISCO. 


The present State of Jatisco and former Intendency of Guada- 
lajara, formed together with Zacatecas, the old Spanish kingdom of 
New Galicia. It 1s bounded on the north by Durango; on the 
north-west by Sinaloa; on the north and east by Zacatecas and 


292 POPULATION, RIVERS, LAKES, DIVISIONS, MANUFACTURES 


Guanajuato; on the south and south-east by Mechoacan and the | 


Territory of Colima; and on the west by the Pacific coast, for a 
distance of 160 leagues. The State stretches from 19° 5! to 23° 
55’ of north latitude; and from 108° 45! to 108° 28’ 30” west lon- 
gitude from Paris. Its population is estimated at about 700,000. 

The greater part of Jalisco lies on the western slope of the Cor- 
dillera ; and its table lands, which resemble those of the great pla- 
teau of Mexico, are somewhat cut up by mountain spurs. The 
upper regions consequently are comparatively sterile, whilst the low- 
lands are rich and fruitful. 

The Sierras of Bayona, in the north-west end of Chalchihuitéc, 
in the north-east of the State, are its most remarkable mountain 
ranges. The Rio Grande de Santiago is the principal stream in 
Jalisco; but during the six months of the dry season, its waters are 
either extremely shallow or disappear altogether. The Bayona is 
a boundary between this State and Sinaloa. | 

The Lake or Cuapata, lies about fifteen leagues from the city 
of Guadalajara, and forms a basin among the mountains of 36 to 
40 leagues in length by 5 to 8 in breadth. Its usual depth is about 
six anda half fathoms. Its scenery is remarkably beautiful, and it 
supplies the neighborhood plentifully with fish and water-fowl. 


Jalisco is divided into eight Cantons or Departments : — Guada- 
lajara, Lagos, La Barca, Sayula, Etzatlan, Autlan, Tepic and Co- 
lotlan ; — containing 8 large cities and towns, 318 small villages, 
387 haciendas or plantations, and 2,534 ranchos or farms. 

The agricultural productions of Jalisco combine those of the 
tierras calientas and the trerras templadas. On the upper plateaus, 
grain and agaves are chiefly planted, and on the coast, sugar and 
cotton. A small quantity of cochineal is also raised, and in the 
district of Autlan de la Grana, plantations of the cacao-tree have 
been made. All the fruits of the tropical and temperate zones are 
readily grown; sheep, mules, horses, goats, neat-cattle, are raised 
in great abundance, and not less than 10,000 head of cattle are 
found on many haciendas de Gafiado. 

The manufactures of Jalisco are chiefly confined to rude cotton 
fabrics or some fanciful articles of dress.. The people are celebrated 
for their gold and silver embroidery upon leather which is used. in 
the manufacture of saddles and horse equipage. 

Nearly all the importations into this State come either by land 
from San Luis Potosi, the city of Mexico, or San Blas, which is 
the chief port of Jalisco on the Pacific. A large portion of the 


AGRICULTURE — FACTORIES —GUADALAJARA——TOWNS. 293 


foreign wares are doubtless smuggled into the interior, or introduced 
through the corrupt connivance of custom-house officers along the 
line of the west coast. | “ 


Hl } Mt fl | al | Trail | ital il Ut 


i 


gO 


eae A 


PLAZA OF QUADALAJARA. 


The city of GuapaLasara, 150 leagues from Mexico, the capital 
of Jalisco, is situated upon an extensive plain. Its handsome 
streets are airy, and many of the houses well built. ‘There are 
fourteen squares, twelve fountains, and a number of convents and 
churches, the principal of which is the magnificent Cathedral, whose 
owers were injured by an earthquake in 1818. An Alameda is 
peautifully laid out with irregular alleys, planted with trees, inter- 
spersed with flowers, while, in the centre, a fountain throws up a 
constant stream of excellent water. 

Within the town, the Portales are the principal rendezvous, and 
contain numerous shops and stalls filled with European and East 
India fabrics, fruit of all kinds, earthenware from Tonala, shoes, 
mangas, saddlery, birds, sweetmeats of Calabazato, and a thousand 
other varieties to attract the passers by. Each of the stalls pays a 
small ground rent to the convents of Guadalajara, and thus afford 
an amvle revenue to the brotherhoods. 


294 pE LOS LAGOS—TEPIC—SAN BLAS—-MINES—ISLANDS. 


The population of the town may be estimated at 50,000. Its air 
is mild and wholesome, and during the season when the neighboring 
vegetation. is refreshed by rains, the scenery of Guadalajara is con- 
sidered as picturesque as that of the city of Mexico. 

In the district of Lagos lies the town of San Juan DE Los La- 
Gos, in adeep ravine, almost upon a level with the river of the same 
name, and with its mud houses and wild scenery, offers no evi- 
dence of the gay and festive appearance it presents during the fa- 
mous annual fair which is held in it, commencing the 5th of Decem- 
ber, and lasting eight days. At that period, San Juan is the resort 
of merchants, with their wares from all parts of the Republic, and 
all the planters or wealthy rancheros within an hundred leagues, re- 
sort thither with their families. 

There is a beautiful church in this town, dedicated to Our Lady 
of the Lake, and medals struck in honor of her are sold at the door 
of the temple. 

In the district of la Barca are the towns of La Barca, Tlachi- 
chilco, Chapala, Axixis, Ojotepec, Aranda and Atotomilco. 

In the district of Etzatlan, we find the capital village of Etzat- 
_’an, Cocula, San Martin, Améca, Tequila and Agualco. 

In the district of Sayula, are Sayula, Zapotlan el grande, Zapo- 
titli, Tuspan and Zacualco. 

In the district of Autlan, we find Autlan de la Grana, a town 
with 4,000 inhabitants, La Villa de la Purificacion, with 3,000, 
Mascota, San Sebastian and Tecolotlan, which are large villages. 

In the district of Tepic lies the town of Tepic, a fine well built 
town in the midst of a rich mountain plain, 2,963 feet above the 
level of the sea, and next to the capital, the finest and most populous 
town in the State. Besides this, there are Pochotitlan, Compos- 
tella, Ahuacatlan, S. Maria del Oro, Santiago, Centispac, Acapo- 
neta, and Guajicoria. Three leagues north-east of the latter, a warm 
spring is found in the neighborhood of the Cerro de Huicalapa. 

The capital of the district of Colotlan, is San Antonio de Colot- 
lan, containing about 4,000 inhabitants. In this district we also 
find Santa Maria, a large and populous village lying 5,659 feet 
above the sea, Huejucar, Cartagena, Tlallenango and Bolafios, a 
mining town. 

The best sea-port of Jalisco is that of San Blas, whose town lies 
in 21° 32! 24” north latitude and 107° 35! 48,” west longitude from 
Paris, upon a rock of basaltic lava, 90 feet high, isolated entirely 
on three sides, and reached by a bad road on the fourth. The ha- 
ven is land-locked, and the anchoring ground good and deep; but, 


MINING REGION—INDIANS—CHARACTER AND HABITS. 295 


during the rainy season the levels around the rock which is the 
fonndation of the town, become filled with stagnant pools until the 
whole adjacent country is covered with water. The burning sun 
of the coast acts rapidly upon these shallow marshes and fills them 
with insects and miasma. San Blas soon becomes uninhabitable, 
and its population betake themselves either to Tepic, Guadalajara, 
or the first elevations of the mountains in the interior. 


The only mining region of any note in Jalisco is that of Bolafios. 
The mines of Hostotipaquillo, near Tepic, are now abandoned ; 
those of Guichichila, Santa Maria del Oro, Santa Martin and 
Ameca, in the district of Etzatlan, in the neighborhood of Cocula, 
are partially wrought. Among the unexplored sites of base and 
spurious metals in this State, we may mention those found in the 
vicinity of Compostella, those near the ranchos of Rosa Morada and 
Buena Vista, towards the coast, between the villages of Santiago 
and Acaponeta, and. those near Guajicoria, north of the last named 
village. | 

The Islands of La Isabela, San Juanico and Marias, lie on the 
Pacific coast of Jalisco. 


The aborigines of Jalisco, formerly warlike and devoted to a 
bloody religion, belong to the tribes of Cazcanes, Guachichiles and 
Guamanes. They are most generally tillers of the ground, ad- 
hering to the doctrines of the Catholic church, and they have par- 
ticular fondness for settling a while in lonely and wild regions, and 
for changing their place of residence frequently. The manners and 
customs of the Guachichiles are in many respects peculiar. They 
still use the bow and arrow as weapons. Their quivers are made 
of deer and shark skins, and the points of their reed arrows are 
formed of a hard wood and rarely of copper. The garments of the 
men consist of a kind of short tunic, roughly made by themselves 
of blue or brown cotton material, with a girdle hanging down in 
front and behind, to which is generally added a pair of trousers of 
tanned goat or deer skin. Married persons, men as well as women, 
wear straw hats with broad rims and high crowns, ornamented with 
a narrow ribbon of bright colored wool and tassels. Their black 
bushy hair is worn very long, bound with bright colored ribbons and 
tassels, or plaited in queus. No unmarried person, male or female, - 
dare wear a hat. ‘The women are clothed with an under garment 
of rough wool or cotton and a mantle of the same material, which 


has an aperture on top through which they pass their heads. When 
QL 


296 CHURCH AND SCHOOL— EDUCATION — BISHOPRIC. 


‘sober they are peaceable and easily controlled, but when intoxi- 
cated violent and quarrelsome. At marriage the husband has the 
right of taking his wife on trial and of sending her back to her pa- 
rents after some time if she should not please him, and this, even if 
she should be pregnant by him. This, however, does not prevent 
such a female marrying afterwards. If she gives satisfaction, the 
husband has the ceremony performed by a priest or monk, who for 
this purpose makes a yearly circuit, and often performs the marriage 
and a baptism at the same time ! 

Church and school matters, particularly the latter, are provided 
for in the State of Jalisco in an inferior manner to other parts of the 
Mexican Republic. A few years ago, there were in the entire 
State only 113 elementary schools attended by not more than 6,167 
children. The instruction was limited almost exclusively to read- 
ing, for of this entire number, according to official accounts, there 
were not more than 2,092 learning to write. For instruction in the 
higher branches there were in the entire State only two indifferent 
institutions located in the capital — one the Seminario Conciliar for 
instruction of the clergy, with thirteen chairs and a species of acade- 
my, founded since the revolution, called El Instituto, with chairs for 
anatomy, modern languages, mineralogy, mathematics, &c. ‘The 
seminary was attended by 120 boarders and 329 day scholars. The 
institution had one director, ten professors, two assistant teachers, 
a secretary, etc.; the available funds of the same consisted, indepen- 
dent of a fee paid by the wealthier scholars, of scarcely any thing but 
an addition of two thousand and seventy dollars granted by the 
State treasury. Jalisco felt deeply. this sad condition of public 
instruction, and numerous propositions for its amelioration and 
thorough reformation were made, but money was wanting and fit 
men for the professorships, and discretion and tact on the part of 
the authorities, and it is scarcely to be expected that since that 
time public instruction has been essentially bettered. ‘The ‘‘Insti- 
tuto”’ since then has been made a university. The State forms a 
separate bishopric. It was erected in the year 1548, and embraced 
at that time in like manner the present States of Durango and New 
Leon. ‘The bishop had his seat first at Compostela ; in 1569 it was 
transferred to Guadalajara. In 1631 Durango was separated from 
Jalisco, and in 1777 both were made distinct bishoprics. The 
episcopal chapter of Jalisco consisted of three dignitaries, four 
canons and four prebendaries. 


COLIMA— EXTENT— CLIMATE — PRODUCTIONS—TOWNS. 297 


THE TERRITORY OF COLIMA. 


This territory is bounded north by Jalisco, south by Mechoacan, 
east by both of these States, and west by the Pacific. It extends 
between the degrees of 18° 18/ and 19° 10! of north latitude, and 
102° 51’ and 104° 2’ west longitude from Greenwich. Its. sur- 
face is generally level, broken by hills, from among which rises 
the mountain of Colima, the westernmost of Mexican volcanoes. it 
lies in the north-eastern corner of the Territory, and reaches a height 
of 9,200 feet above the level of the sea. 

The climate of Colima is warm—on the coast it is hot — but 
the territory is generally considered healthy and fruitful in all por- 
tions. Its population is estimated at about 45,000. Cotton, sugar, 
tobacco and cacao are produced by its agriculturists, while on the 
coast large quantities of salt are made from the waters of the sea. 
Rich iron deposites have been recently found, and individuals have 
commenced developing this important source of national wealth. 

The chief town of the Territory is Cotima, about two leagues. 
south of the volcano, containing between fifteen and twenty thou- 
sand inhabitants. The other towns and villages are Almoloyan, 
with 4,000 people, Xala, Ascatlan and Texupa. The haven of 
Manzanillo, or port of Colima, as it is sometimes called, is seventeen 
leagues west of the capital; and with but small expense to govern- 
ment might be made one of the best anchorages in the Republic. 


CHAP TAR TX 


SINALOA— BOUNDARIES — CLIMATE — DIVISIONS —_ INDIANS —— PRO- 
DUCTS — TOWNS — MINES. — SONORA — BOUNDARIES — DIVI- 
SIONS — RIVERS — CLIMATE — INDIANS — TRADE — TOWNS — 
MINES.— TERRITORY OF LOWER CALIFORNIA — BOUNDARIES — 
CHARACTER — POPULATION — PRODUCTS — PEARLS — SALT — 
MINES — SEALS — WHALES — CLIMATE — PORTS — TOWNS — 
POPULATION. — STATE OF GUERRERO. 


THE STATE OF SINALOA. 


SinaLoa is bounded on the south by Jalisco, on the east by Du- 
rango, on the south-west by Chihuahua, on the north by Sonora and 
on the west by the Pacific coast for a distance of 200 leagues along 
the Gulf of California. It lies between 22° 35’ and 27° 45) of north 
latitude and 107° and 113° west longitude from Paris. The river 
Cafias divides it from Jalisco, and the Mayo from Sonora. Its 
length from south-east to north-west is about 180 leagues, and its 
breadth in the centre 50 to 56 leagues. ‘This State is partly moun- 
tainous and partly level coast land. On the east it lies on the limits 
of the Cordilleras of Mexico. The levels begin in the west near 


the boundaries of Jalisco, and stretch out their broad sand-wastes - 


to the town of Alamos and the river Mayo, until they are lost in the 
State of Sonora. This region is scorched with a blazing sun, and 
is of course but thinly peopled and little cultivated. Near the city 
of Alamos a more genial country begins. The central and eastern 
parts of Sinaloa are rich in table lands and vallies, while the slopes 
of the mountains are thickly wooded. In the interior the rains are 
not heavy nor the warmth intense. A mild and genial air prevails 
during the whole year; but on the coast the heat is excessive, 
and all who are able escape from it into the interior. 

The State of Sinaloa is divided into three departments :— 

Ist. The department del Fuerte, with three cantons, viz: Fuerte, 
Alamos and Sinaloa. 

2d. The department of Culiacan, with two cantons, viz: Culia- 
can and Cosala. 

3d. The department of San Sebastian, with three cantons, viz: 
Sebastian, Rosario and Piastla. 

The principal streams and rivers of this State are those of las Canias, 
or Rio de Bayéna, the boundary line in the direction of Jalisco; the 


INDIANS — PRODUCTS — TOWNS — MINES — SONORA. 299 


Rosario, and the coast streams of Mazatlan, Piastla, Elota and Ta- 
vala. ‘There are besides these the Culiacan or Sacuda, Imaya, Mo- 
corito, Ocroni, del Fuerte and Mayo. 

The Indians belong to various tribes. The Coras, Nayarites, 
and Hueicolhues are found in the south; north of these dwell the 
Sinaloas, Cochitas and Tubares; and still further north, on the 
streams of the Ocroni, Ahomé, del Fuerte and Mayo, we find some 
tribes of Guasares, Ahomes and Ocronis. The Mayos inhabit 
chiefly the regions west and north-west of the town of Alamos. 

The white inhabitants of this State are chiefly descendants of 
emigrants from Biscay and Catalonia in Spain. 


Sinaloa is regarded as a productive State, and yields good crops 
of grain in the portions which are easily irrigated. Wheat, Indian 
corn and barley, together with some cotton, sugar and tobacco, are 
cultivated successfully ; whilst all sorts of fruits and vegetables are 
found in abundance. 

The principal towns are Mazatlan, a port with anchorage on the 
west coast, which is much visited by European and American ves- 
sels, and has been the seat of a very large smuggling trade in which 
the wares of India and of northern nations were exchanged for the 
precious metals of Mexico, her grain and skins. 

Asilos del Rosario and the Villa de San Sebastian lie in the de- 
partment of San Sebastian. San Ignacio de Piastla is the capital 
of a canton. Culiacan lies in the department of Culiacan. Sinaloa 
or Villa de San Felipe y Santiago de Sinaloa, the Villa del Fuerte 
or Montesclaros, and Alamos, are the other towns of note in this 
State. | 

Sinaloa is rich in metallic deposits of base and precious metals, 
the chief of which are found at Asilos de Rosario, Cosala, Copala, 
Alamos, and San José de los Mulatos. 


THE STATE OF SONORA. 


Sonora bounds eastwardly on Chihuahua and New Mexico; 
southwardly on Sinaloa; and westwardly on the Gulf of California 
for 238 leagues between the mouths of the Mayo and the Colorado. 
Its northern boundary is now the line which divides the Republic 
of Mexico from the Californian possessions of the United States. 

The western and southern portions of Sonora are generally flat. 
In the south, between the rivers Mayo and Yaqui and the Presidio 
of Buena Vista, there is a fruitful region, whose productiveness is 


300 BOUNDARIES, DIVISIONS, RIVERS, CLIMATE, INDIANS, ETC. 


enhanced by a number of small lakes formed during the rainy season 
on the levels, which are used by the careful agriculturists for the 
irrigation of their farms. On the eastern boundary of the State, 
the ridges of the Cordillera begin to rise, until they tower into 
the massive mountains which form the Sierra Madre, among the 
spurs of which many valuable metallic deposits have been discoy- 
ered. The fine and productive vallies of Bavispe, Oposura, Sonora 
and Dolores are found in the neighborhood of this mountain country. 

Sonora is divided into two Departments : 

Ist. The Department of Arispe, with three cantons, viz: Arispe, 
Oposura and Altar. 

2nd. The Department of Horcasitas, with three cantons, viz: 
Horcasitas, Ostimuri, and Petic. 

The chief rivers are the Mayo, the boundary in the direction of 
Sinaloa; the Yaqui or Hiaqui; the Rio Grande de Bavispe; Opo- 
sura; Sonora; Dolores; Guayamas; Rio de la Ascencion; San 
Ignacio; Gila; San Francisco or Rio Azul; San Pedro; Santa 
Maria and the Rio Colorado. 

The climate of Sonora is warm throughout the year; but the 
early spring is subject to remarkable and rapid changes of tempera- 
ture, and to sudden variations of wind between the north and east. 
From April to the end of September the thermometer ranges between 
75° and 84° Fahrenheit. 

A large portion of Sonora is occupied by Indian tribes, some of 
which are partially agricultural where they have been brought into 
contact with the whites ; but the greater portion may be regarded as 
belonging to the wild nomadic bands which have hitherto harassed 
the northern settlements of Mexico. In the eastern part of the 
State, on the banks of the Sonora and Oposura, and in the vicinity 
of the town of Arispe and the mineral region of Nocasari, we find 
large numbers of the Opatas. North of the Ascencion, and 
stretching far inland from the coast, are the Pimos Altos, the most 
northerly bands that have submitted to the influences of Christianity 
or of partial civilization. The nomadic tribes in the north and 
north-east of the State are Papayos or Papabi-Otawas, the Yumas, 
the Cucapas or Cupachas, the Cajuenches, the Coandpas, the Apa- 
ches Tontos, the Cocomaricopas, the Pimo Galenos, the Apaché 
Gilenos, Apaché Mimbrefios, and Apaché Chiricaguis. Of all these 
wild and savage tribes, the Apachés are the most uncontrollable. 

The trade of Sonora is chiefly carried on at Guyamas, in latitude 
27° 40’ N. and 114° W. longitude from Paris, — one of the best har- 
bors in West Mexico, in a healthy region, containing about 3 ,000 i in- 


TOWNS —TERRITORY LOWER CALIFORNIA—BOUNDARIES. 301 


habitants ;—and at Petic, forty leagues north north-east from Guya- 
mas, in about 29° 20! of north latitude. The latter town, contain- 
ing about 8,000 inhabitants, is the depot for goods imported through 
the port of Guyamas which are designed for the northern districts 
of Mexico. Besides these two important places, there are the towns 
of San Miguel Horcasitas, with 2,500 inhabitants; Arispe, with 
3,000; San José de Guyamas 350 to 400; Bayoreca; Onabas ; 
Presidio de Buena Vista; El Aguage; Ures; Babiacora; Bana- 
mitza; Batuc; Matape; Oposura; Presidio de Bavispe; Presidio 
de Fronteras ; San Ildefonso Cieneguilla; Presidio de Santa Ger- 
trudis del Altar; Oquitoa; Presidio de la Santa Cruz; Presidio de 
Tuscon; and Presidio de Tubac. 
The mineral characteristics are similar to those of Sinaloa. 


THE TERRITORY OF LOWER CALIFORNIA. 


The Territory of Lower California is comprehended in that long 
peninsular strip of land which extends from the present southern 
boundary of the. United States to Cape St. Lucas, and which is 
washed on the east by the Gulf of California from the point where 
the Rio Colorado debouches into it, and on the west by the waves 
of the Pacific occan. It lies between 32° 31! 59! 58”, and Cape 
St. Lucas, in about 22° 45’ of north latitude. 

The country, generally, is represented to be one of the most un- 
attractive in the warm or temperate regions. The peninsula, 
about 700 miles long, varies in breadth from thirty to one hundred 
miles, its mean breadth being about fifty. The surface of this re- 
gion is formed of an irregular chain of rocks, hills and mountains, 
which run throughout the central portion of its whole length, 
and some of which attain a height of nearly five thousand feet. 
Amid these dreary ridges there are occasionally found a few shel- 
tered spots which, though deluged by the torrents, have not been 
swept clear of productive earth, and in these there is a fertile soil of 
small extent, yielding a thin but nutritious grass. There are few 
streams or springs; trees of magnitude are scarce; and the heavy 
showers falling on the central rocky peaks and eminences are 
drained on the east and west into the Pacific and Gulf of California 
by the sloping sides of the peninsula, so as to bear with them into 
the sea a large portion of cultivable soil, In the plains and in 
most of the dry beds of rivers, water can be obtained by digging 
wells only a few feet deep, and wherever irrigation has been adopted 


302 CHARACTER— POPULATION 


PRODUCTS — PEARLS. 


by means of these wells, the produce of the fields has abundantly 
rewarded the agriculturist. Much of the soil is of volcanic origin, 
being washed from the mountains, as we have already stated, and 
its yield, by aid of irrigation, is alleged to be quite marvellous. It 
is probable therefore, notwithstanding the unfavorable aspect of the 
country as seen by a casual visiter, that its evil repute is chiefly 
owing to the indolent and roving character of the inhabitants, and 
that in the hands of an industrious and agricultural people, it would 
be capable of supporting a population much more numerous than 
the present. At an earlier period of the Territory’s history, under 
the dominion of the missions, when very small portions of the 
soil were cultivated, and even those but rudely by the Indians, the 
four districts of San José, Santiago, San Antonio and Todos Santos, 
contained 35,000 souls, whereas the present population of the whole 
peninsula is probably not more than nine or ten thousand. 

During the epoch when the missions of California still flourished 
the general barrenness of this territory did not subdue the energy 
of the priestly fathers, who in the sheltered vallies near the different 
mission sites, which were carefully selected, produced Indian corn, 
grapes, dates, figs, quinces, peaches, pears and olives. Much of 
these fruits was preserved and exported to the opposite coast of 
Mexico. But these articles, together with pearls, tortoise-shell, 
bullocks’ hides, dried beef, soap and cheese constituted the whole 
product and commerce of the peninsula. The waters of the gulf 
were in former days more valuable to the Californians than the 
shores. During the sixteenth century the pearl fishery produced a 
valuable revenue, and towards its close, six hundred and ninety-seven 
pounds of the precious article were imported into Seville from Ame- 
ica; but at the last authentic dates of twenty years past, the fishery 
in lower California had dwindled into utter insignificance. Four 
vessels and two boats were alone engaged in it; and the two hun- 
dred divers who still searched the bottom of the coasts in their 
perilous trade, obtained only eighty-eight ounces of pearls valued 
at little more than thirteen thousand dollars. 

The pearl fishery seems, however, to have revived somewhat, 
shortly anterior to the war with the United States, and a report from 
one of our most intelligent officers in the Pacific at that period, states 
that the annual exportation of pearls amounted then to between forty 
and fifty thousand dollars. 

Valuable mines of gold, silver, copper and lead are known to exist 
in the peninsula, and although only a few are rudely worked, the 
labor expended on them is amply rewarded. The salt mines, on the 


SALT—-MINES —SEALS.— WHALES -—CLIMATE — ports. 303 


island of Carmen, in the Gulf of California, near Loreto, are capable 
of supplying the whole coast of Mexico and California. The surface 
of the lake producing this valuable mineral is covered with a solid 
- erust several feet in thickness, which is cut in blocks, like ice, and 
conveyed to the beach by convicts under the order of the Governor 
of Lower California, who has hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of the 
trade with Mazatlan and San Blas. 

The country about La Paz, situated on the east coast, south of 
the bay of La Paz, and near the Pichilingue cove, is represented to 
be valuable for grazing. Some of the silver mines near San Anto- 
nio, about forty miles south, are productively wrought. Gold dust 
and virgin gold are brought to La Paz, and about one hundred 
thousand dollars of platapina, are exported from it yearly. The whole 
coast abounds. with fish, clams and oysters. Among the islands of 
the gulf immense number of seal are constantly found, and the 
whaling grounds on the Pacific coast are of great value. Magda- 
lena bay alone has, at one time, contained as many as twenty-eight 
sail; all engaged in this fishery. 

The coasts of Lower California are flat, sandy, irregular, and 
frequently indented by coves, inlets and bays, while many islands 
~ lie near and border them in the gulf. The climate is regarded as 
healthful ; the winter is short, and frost and ice are unknown. A 
pure air and a deep blue sky surround and span the region; but the 
heat of summer is intense, parching the thin soil, and rendering life 
almost insupportable in the more exposed regions, or in the narrow 
and confined glens. 

The principal ports visited by merchantmen or whalers on the 
west or Pacific coast, are: Ist. That of San Quentin, in latitude 30° 
23', which is said to afford a secure anchorage for vessels of 
every description, and to be sufficient for the accommodation of a 
numerous fleet; and 2dly, the bay of Magdalena, which has aec- 
quired notoriety from being resorted to every winter by numbers of 
whalers. It is protected by the two large islands of San Lazaro and 
Margareta, and possesses many of the characteristics of an inland 
sea, being navigable for the distance of more than a hundred miles. 
— It has several commodious anchorages. The bay of San José, near 
' Cape San Lucas, is ordinarily frequented by coasters, and is some- 
times visited by whalers and men-of-war, being the outlet of a val- 
ley, unusually fertile for Lower California, which extends upwards 
of forty miles inland, and affords probably the best watering and 
provisioning place on the peninsula, though it is a mere roadstead 
yielding no protection in the season of south-easters. 

2M 


304 TOWNS —POPULATION—STATE OF GUERRERO. 


On the west coast of the Peninsula, north of Cape San Lucas, 
and between that point and the 24th degree of N. latitude are the bays 
of San Barnabé and De los Muertos. Between the 24th and 25th 
degrees is the bay of La Paz, an extensive indenture, protected to- 
wards the gulf by numerous isles and islets and affording excellent 
anchorages for vessels of any draft or any number. In this vicinity 
are the principal pearl fisheries as well as the most reputed mining 
districts. It is the outlet of the cultivated valley of Todos Santos 
and of the produce of the whole region lying between Santiago and 
Loreto. The cove or estero, opposite the town of La Paz, furnishes 
spacious and secure anchorage, which may be reached by vessels 
drawing not more than eighteen or twenty feet; while the cove of 
Pichilingue, at the south-eastern extremity of the bay, about six miles 
from the town, affords anchorage for vessels of any size; but the 
inner bay can be reached only by merchantmen. The bar, how- 
ever, between the two is only a few yards in extent; and if the 
importance of the place should ever justify it, the channel might be 
deepened without much expensive labor. There is an anchorage 
at Loreto at about 26° north, and there are several places of resort 
and anchorage in the bay of Mulejé, between 26° and 27°, but 
none are deemed secure for large or small craft at any season. 
Several other ports are found on the gulf further north, which are 
visited occasionally by coasters, but the region is as yet quite unex- 
plored, and their commercial or military value is of course un- 
known. Beyond the bay of Mulejé, which is nearly opposite the 
Mexican port of Guyamas on the main continent, the gulf is so 
much narrower than further south, that 1t becomes in a great degree 
a harbor itself. 

The only towns of any importance on the peninsula are those of 
Loreto, and La Paz the capital and seat of government. The pop- 
ulation is of course chiefly an Indian and mixed race, for but few 
whites were ever tempted to prolong their residence in this lonely 
and unattractive region. 


med 


THE STATE OF GUERRERO. 


This State was created by virtue of the fourth article of the Acta 
de Reformas, passed on the 18th of May, 1847, amending the con- 
stitution of 1847. By this article it was agreed that the Stare oF 
Guerrero should be formed of the districts of Acapulco, Chi- 
lapa, Tasco and Tlapa, and the municipality of Coyucan, — the three 


STATE OF GUERRERO. 305 


first of which belonged to the State of Mexico, the fourth to Puebla, 
and the fifth to Mechoacan—provided the legislatures of these three 
States gave their consent within three months. 

It is understood that this consent was yielded, but as the organi- 
zation of the new State has not been received, no elucidation of the 
geography of the region can be given except in the descriptions of 
the three original States whose districts were surrendered, and to 


which the reader is referred in the preceding pages. 


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C. Hr APE Ba ae 
INTERIOR STATES. 


STATE CF QUERETARC — BOUNDARIES — DIVISIONS —CHARACTER- 


ISTICS — RIVERS — POPULATION AND CLIMATE — DISTRICTS, 
ETC. — AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS — FORESTS — FACTORIES — 
CITIES — MINES. — STATE OF GUANAJUATO — BOUNDARIES — 


EXTENT — SOIL — LAKE YURIRAPUNDARO — CLIMATE — EFFECT 
OF MALADIES — PRODUCTIONS — VINE — OLIVE — DIVISIONS — 
POPULATION — CITY OF GUANAJUATO —TOWNS IN THE STATE 
— HACIJENDA OF JARAL— MINES — SILVER— COPPER — LEAD 
— CINNABAR. — ZACATECAS — BOUNDARIES — EXTENT — AGRI- 
CULTURE — DIVISIONS — POPULATION — TOWNS — ZACATECAS 
— AGUAS CALIENTES, ETC. — PRODUCT AND VALUE OF ZACATE- 
CAN MINES. — RUINS OF QUEMADA IN ZACATECAS. 


RA Eas To At EOF QUERETARO. 


| The State of Queretaro, one of the smallest members of the Re- 

- public, is situated between 19° 35! 42! 7!" and 21° 17! 16" 45! of 
north latitude. By trigonometrical surveys made in 1837, the State 
was found to contain 869 square leagues, which were divided be-. 
tween the six districts as follows: 


1 District of Querétaro.. . . . 157 square leagues. 
2  “ ~ 'SeniJuandel Rio 2. 12s “ 
3 ee Cadeyewta (3. 3. oa aoe G 
4 Ge Tolimagin: co. 0 tate a . 
5 et Jalpamnags: 2’ seid. < 
6 es Ainealeo sy: sh o0e - 
Total 869 


This State is bounded on the north by the State of San Luis Potosi, 
west and south-west by Guanajuato and Mechoacan, south by Mexi- 
co, and east by Mexico and Vera Cruz. It lies entirely on the cen- 
tral plateau of the Cordillera, and is consequently intersected by 
numerous mountain spurs and elevated hills, some of which are en- 
tirely bere, while others are covered with forests of various kinds of 
wood. The plains are frequently cut up by deep barrancas or gul- 
lies, rivers and streamlets. The agricultural portions of the State are 
consequently confined chiefly to the vallies of San Juan del Rio, 
—Querétaro, Cadereyta, Amealco, Toliman and Jalpam, in which the 
soil, enriched by the vegetable products and debris drained from the 


RIVERS — POPULATION AND CLIMATF.— DISTRICTS, ETC. 307 


mountain sides, is usually found to be very productive. Querétaro 
is generally remarked by travellers for the picturesque character of 
its scenery and the beautiful site of its haciendas, cities and ran- 
chos. Mountainous as is this region, it has no single elevation of 
remarkable character in the geography of the republic. In a coun- 
try thus physically formed and raised above the sea, important rivers 
are, of course, not easily encountered, and although there are fifteen 
streams which are dignified by the inhabitants with this title, the 
only two of importance are the Tula or Rio de Montezuma, the 
boundary between the States of Mexico and Vera Cruz, and the 
Rio Paté which has cut its deep and stony bed in the porphyritic 
rock near San Juan del Rio. The temperature of the whole region 
is exceedingly cool and the climate 1s agreeable and healthy. 
The population assigned to the State in 1845 was 180,161; 

classified thus: 

Spaniards, Creoles and Europeans, . ; . 936,032 

Indians, . : : : : : : 90,080 

Castes, : : : : : : . 54,049 


fotales. : . ; . »-1805161 

Querétaro is divided into six districts, comprising eight partidos. 

Ist. The prefecture of Querétaro, with the partidos of the capi- 
tal and of La Canada; in these two are found the town of San 
_Francisco Galileo, the villages of Santa Rosa and Huimilpam, and 
the hamlets of Santa Maria Magdalena and San Miguel Carillo. 
461 inhabitants to each square league. 

2d. The district of the municipality of San Juan del Rio contains 
the village of Tequisquiapam, the hamlets of San Pedrito, San Se- 
bastian, and the rancheria of La Barranca de los Cocheros. 171 in- 
habitants to each square league. 

3d. The district of the municipality of Cadeyreta which contains 
the mining posts of El Doctor and Maconi, and the villages of San 
José Vizarron, San Gaspar, San Sebastian de Brual, and San Mi- 
guel Tetillas. 183% inhabitants to each square league. 

4. The district of Santa Maria Amealco, containing the village 
of Huimalpam and the hamlets of San José de Ito, San Bartolo, 
San Miguel Deti, San Juan de Gued6, San Miguel Tlaxcaltepec, 
San Pedro Tenango, San Idefonso, and Santiago Mexquitlan. 80 
inhabitants to each square league. 

Sth. The district of San Pedro Toliman, contains the villages of 
San Francisco Tolimanejo, Santa Maria Pefiamillera, San Miguel 
-Toliman, San Miguel de las Palmas, a mission station, Santo Do- 


3808 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS—FORESTS, FACTORIES, CITIES. 


mingo de Soriano, San Antonio de Bernal, and the mining post of 
Rio Blanco. 213 inhabitants to the square league. 

6th. The district of Jalpam, contains three partidos and in these 
there are two sub-prefectures, which are Landa and Aguacatlan a 
mining post; besides these there are the villages of Conca, San- 
cillo, Bucareli, Arroyoseco, Tancoyol and Xilapan ; the mining posts 
of San José de los Amoles and San Pedro Escanela; and the mis- 
sions of Tilaco and Pacula, 64 inhabitants to the square league. 

The whole State is calculated to contain 124 haciendas or large 
plantations, and 392 ranchos or farms, while nearly 30,000 of its 
inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits. 

The products of the soil are similar to those already described in 
the other States on the central plateau. In the valleys some of the 
tropical productions are found, but grain and cattle form the staples 
of the farmer’s care. Very thick forests are seldom found in any 
part of the State, and many regions are almost entirely denuded. 
It will be seen from our chapter upon the manufactures of Mexico, 
that Querétaro is remarkable for the zeal and success with which it 
has applied itself to this branch of industry. Most of the woollen 
fabrics of this State are made of the Lana de Chinchorro which is 
produced within its limits, and is commonly sold at $15 per 100 lbs. 
Besides this there is a species of cotton, raised in some of the dis- 
tricts, used in the manufacture of a favorite kind of mantas, shawls 
and rebozos. The trade of the State is carried on chiefly with 
Mexico, Vera Cruz and San Luis Potosi. 

The principal city is that of Querétaro, the capital and seat of 
government, lying in 19° 58’ 2!" 15!” N. latitude, and 1° 5’ W. longi- 
tude from the meridian of Mexico, 6,365 feet above the sea. This 
fine, picturesque and well built town, containing about 50,000 in- 
habitants, is situated on the sides and summit of converging hills, 
and is divided into several parishes, or curatos, some of which are 
in the body of the city and others in the suburbs, being separated 
from the rest by a scant stream which has been dignified with the 
title of El Rio—the river. Querétaro stands nearly 7,000 feet 
above the level of the sea, and enjoys a delightful temperature. A 


noble aqueduct, two miles in length, with arches ninety feet high, © 


spanning a plain of meadow land—joins a tunnel from the opposite 
hills, and supplies the city with an abundance of excellent water from 
a distance of two leagues. It is a magnificent and enduring struc- 
- ture, and the honor of its erection is due to the taste and judgment 
of the Marquis de Valero del Aguila, who caused it to be built at 
his own cost during his viceroyal government of Mexico. Queré- 


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MINES—STATE OF GUANAJUATO, BOUNDARIES, EXTENT. 309 


taro has become interesting in our history, inasmuch as it was the 
city in which the treaty of peace between Mexico and the United 
States was finally ratified by the Mexican Congress in 1848. 

The other important towns are those of San Juan del Rio, San 
Pedro de la Canada, and Cadereyta. 

The chief mining district, and the only one of any note in the 
State, is that of El Doctor, in the district of Cadereyta. Its princi- 
pal veins are those of El Doctor and San Cristoval; but famous as 
they once were, they are now of but little importance. The quick- 
silver mine of San Onéfre, in the same region, is also failing. 

The mining districts of El Doctor, Rio Blanco, Maconi and Es- 
canelella, contain 216 mines—divided as follows: five of gold; 193 
of silver; 7 of copper; 1 of lead; 1- of tin; 6 of quicksilver; 2 
of antimony; 1 of jaldre. 


Pe Siete OF GUANAJUATO. 


The State of Guariajuato is comprehended between 20° and 21° 
49’ of north latitude, and 0° 31! 05" and 2° 51’ of longitude west 
from the meridian of Mexico, and is situated upon the grand Mexi- 
can Cordillera. It is bounded on the north by the State of San 
Luis Potosi, on the south by Mechoacan, on the east by Querétaro, 
and on the west by Jalisco and Zacatecas. Its superficial extent is 
1,545 Mexican leagues of 264 to the degree. With the exception 
of the State of Querétaro, Guanajuato is the smallest of the Republic, 
yet it contains, comparatively, the greatest number of inhabitants, as 
will be seen hereafter. 

Large portions of the soil of Guanajuato are fertile; especially 
the magnificent and productive plains of the Bajio, in the southern 
part of the State, which extend for more than 34 leagues from 
Apasco to beyond Leon ;—and, in the north, where the splendid 
plains or Llanos of San Félipe spread far and wide. 

All the Sterra of Santa Rosa forms a chain of porphyritic moun- 
tains and elevations of greater or less elevation, which pass under 
the general name of Cerros. The highest of these, two leagues 
north of the capital is known as the Cerro de los Llanitos. It rises 
to the height of 3,359 varas above the level of the sea, and is the 
loftiest in the State. Besides these, there are the Cerros del Gigante, 
E! Cubilete, La Bufa, La Garrida, La Beata and San Juan de 
~ Mendoza. 

The river Lerma, anciently known as Tolotlan, and commonly 
des‘onated in Guanajuato as the Rio Grande, is the only one which 


310 STREAMS, LAKE YURIRAPUNDARO, CLIMATE, EFFECT OF 


really merits this name in the State, and crosses the southern por- 
tion of it for near 35 leagues. The river Laja and the river Turbio 
are of less consequence ; and all the other streams, though gen- 
erally known among the people of these districts by the dignified 
title of rivers, scarcely merit a higher position among the fluvial 
characteristics of the State than brooks or mountain torrents, which 
only obtainreal consideration when they are swollen by heavy rains. 

The lake of Yuriraptndaro, is the only one which belongs to this 
State ;—it is four leagues long by one and a half in width, and 
embosoms several islands. Its sweet waters are filled with small 
fish, which are taken daily by theslndians, for the markets of the 
neighborhood and the capital, but its actual depth is unknown. 

The climate of Guanajuato is genial, its sky nearly always clear, 
and its atmosphere pure. Owing to its site, immediately north of 
the torrid zone, the inhabitants do not suffer the extremes of heat or 
cold. Elevated about 8,000 feet above the level of the sea, its 
rarefied atmosphere counteracts the direct rays of the sun, so that 
its mean temperature is 21° of the centigrade thermometer, whilst it 
never exceeds 28° in the months between April and June, which 
are generally reckoned the warmest in this part of the Republic. 
During this season the rain usually begins to fall, and lowers the 
temperature agreeably. The north wind prevails during the greater 
part of the year; yet near the period of the annual rains it changes 
for a while to the south, bringing with it an abundance of moist 
vapor to fertilize the soil. Nothing is sadder for the people of 
Guanajuato and the adjacent States than to find, as sometimes hap- 
pens, the months passing without this customary change of wind. 
In such years the crops fail; the prices of grain consequently rise, 
and the poor classes suffer extremely. The year 1786, is known in 
the annals of this region, as one well remembered still for the famine 
that prevailed in consequence of a severe frost that occurred on the 
28th of the preceding August, blighting the prospects of the farmer, 
and carrying off 8,000 victims in the capital and the adjacent mines 
alone. In the month of May agriculture often suffers from violent 
hail storms that prostrate the young grain which at this season of 
the year is usually extremely dry in consequence of the early heats 
and the want of irrigation. 

The mild and pure climate of Guanajuato renders it a healthy 
residence. In its southern part, about Salvatierra and Yuriraptn- 
daro, intermittent fevers, called los frios, or agues, occasionally pre- 
vail. Dropsy, rheumatism, common fever, and dysenteries, which 
usually sweep off large numbers of Mexicans, are milder and more 


AN SE Oe ES ae a ee ae 


f 
i 


(i | | 


GUANAJUATO. 


MALADIES — PRODUCTIONS — VINE— OLIVE. 311 


easily treated in this region than in other portions of the Republic. 
The laborers in the mines formerly suffered from diseases of the 
chest, arising probably from the mephitic vapors which were con- 
fined in the badly ventilated galleries; but the Deputacion de la 
Mineria took this subject into consideration, and have forced the 
owners of mines by stringent laws to construct shafts and openings 
by which these buried workmen may receive continual supplies of 
fresh air. Vie 

Maize, wheat, frijoles, beans, and the common cereal grains are 
produced abundantly in the fertile plains of the Bajio and San 
Felipé. Corn, though the chief product for consumption, not only 
for man but for beasts, is often so abundant, that the farmers are 
obliged to export.it to other States. The quality of the wheat of 
this State is so excellent, that when it will bear the cost of transpor- 
tation, it is sent to the national capital, where it commands a better 
price than even the grain raised in the immediate vicinity of the 
city. The frijol,—a fine dark, nutritious bean, which is commonly 
used throughout Mexico, by all classes, from the highest to the 
lowest, — grows abundantly in Guanajuato. The Chile pepper is 
used in Mexico, not only as a seasoning for food as in other coun- 
tries, but as an aliment of life, which is placed on tables of all ranks 
at dinner. It is consumed both in its green and dry states, and in 
the latter, itis exported from Guanajuato to the capital, where the pro- 
duct of the haciendas or plantations at Apaseo are preferred by the 
epicures as being of the best flavor in the Republic. The vine, is 
also cultivated in various parts of this State, especially at Dolores 
Hidalgo, Celaya, and Chamacuero, but as manufactories of wine 
have not been established, its culture does not extend beyond the 
quantity of grapes required for consumption in the markets. The 
potato does not flourish in this State. 

It is believed that the olive may be advantageously reared in 
Guanajuato. At the beginning of the present century, Joaquin 
Gutierrez de los Rios made the experiment at his hacienda de Sara- 
bia, within the district of Salamanca. The scarcity and dearness 
of oil in Spain, at that period, in consequence of the war, enabled 
the mill established by this person to supply the neighborhood with 
the article at such prices, that the lucky proprietor realized a large 
- income from his enterprize. . But during the insurrection in 1810, 
his property was destroyed, and with it, a large part of his olive 
plantation. At present, considerable plantations are making at sev- 
eral haciendas, especially at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive 


trees had been already planted in 1849. 
2N 


uly DIVISIONS ——- POPULATION —CITY OF GUANAJUATO. 


The State of Guanajuato is divided into four departments or pre- 
fectures: — 1st. San Miguel de Allende; 2d. Leon; 3d. Guana- 
juato; 4th Celaya; whose capitals or chief towns bear the same 
names. ‘The possession by this State of the great and celebrated 
Veta Madre which passes nearly through its centre, and of the wide 
and prolific plains of the Bajio and of San Felipé renders it equally 
valuable as a mining and agricultural region, and divides it fairly 
between the two branches of industry. Its population may be esti- 
mated at about 560,000; twenty-five per cent. of which comprises 
the whites, thirty-six per cent. the mixed races, and thirty-nine per 
cent. the Indian. Guanajuato contains three cities, four market- 
towns, thirty-seven villages, and four hundred and fifty estates, plan- 
tations and farms. 

The capital of the State is the city of Guanasvato, or Santa Fé 
de Guanajuato, situated in 21° 0! 15” north latitude and 103° 15! 
west longitude from Paris, about 6,869 feet above the level of the 
sea, according to the measurement of Burkhart, and containing be- 
tween 35,000 and 40,000 inhabitants. The town is perhaps the 
most curiously picturesque and remarkable in the republic. ‘ En- 
tering a rocky Cafiada,”’ says a recent traveller, ‘“‘the bottom of 
_ which barely affords room for a road, you pass between high adobe 
walls, above which, up the steep, rise tier above tier of blank, win- 
dowless, sun-dried houses, looking as if they had grown out of the 
earth. You would. take them to be a sort of cubic crystallization 
of the soil. Every corner of the windings of the road is filled with 
buildings of mining companies— huge fortresses of stone, ramparted 
as if for defence. ‘The scene varies with every moment;—now 
you look up to a church with purple dome and painted towers; 
now the blank adobe walls, with here and there a spiry cypress or 
graceful palm between them, rise far above you, along the steep 
ledges of the mountain; and again the mountain itself, with its 
waste of rock and cactus, is all you see. The Cafiada, finally 
seems toclose. A precipice of rock, out of a rift in which the stream 
flows, shuts the passage. Ascending this by a twist in the road 
you are in the heart of the city. Lying partly in the narrow bed 
of the ravine and partly on its sides and in its lateral branches, it is 
only by mounting to some higher eminence that one can realize its 
extent and position. At the further end of the city the mountains 
form a cul de sac. The Cafiada is a blind passage which can only 
be left by the road you came. The streets are narrow, crooked, 
and run up and down in al] directions, and there is no room for 
plazas or alamedas. A little triangular space in front of the cathe- 


TOWNS IN THE STATE—HACIENDA OF JARAL. 313 


dral, however, aspires to the former title.””. Such is the aspect of a 
city which is the focus of a mineral region surrounded by more than 
one hundred mines, which are wrought by seventy-five thousand 
laborers. 

In spite of all the natural difficulties and impediments for fine 
architecture, Guanajuato contains some fine edifices, especially 
among the private residences of the wealthy miners, such as the 
families of Otero, Valenciana, Rhul and Perez Galvez. The church 
of the Jesuits was built by the Marquis Rayas. Besides the cathe- 
dral, the town contains two chapels, three monasteries, five con- 
vents, a college, a Bethlehemite hospital, a theatre, a barrack, a 
mint, an university, and a gymnasium. 

The Vitta pe Leov, is a market town west north-west from 
Guanajuato, in 21° 6/ 38! north latitude, and 103° 39! west longi- 
tude, 6,004 feet above the sea, in the productive plain of Leon. 

San Fexipé£ is another market town,.32 leagues north of Guana- 
juato, on the road to San Luis Potosi, 6,906 feet above the sea. 
Ten leagues north-east from San Felipé is the valuable estate of 
Jaral, the property of the Marquis del Jaral, the wealthiest and 
largest land owner in Mexico. His stock of cattle, comprising 
horses, mules, horned-cattle, sheep and goats amounts to nearly three 
million head !* Thirty thousand sheep alone, and as many goats, 
are annually slaughtered on this estate for the markets of Guana- 
juato and Mexico, where the sheep sell for from two and a half to 
three dollars a piece, and the goats from seventy-five cents to one 
dollar each ! 

Crexaya is a city, and next in importance to Guanajuato in the 
State. It hes in 20° 38! north latitude, and 102° 52! west longi- 
tude, near the boundary of Querétaro, 6,020 feet above the sea, and 
contains about 15,000 inhabitants. 

SALAMANCA 1s a market town in the Bajio, nine leagues west from 
Celaya, and is the chief place of a region possessing twenty-nine 
haciendas, or plantation estates, and sixty-nine valuable farms. Its 
population is estimated at 15,000. Irapuato, lies about six leagues 
north-west from Salamanca, and contains perhaps an equal number 
of inhabitants. 

San Micuen ALLenpe, formerly San Miguel el Grande, is the 
capital of the department of that name, lies directly north of Celaya, on 
the river de la Laja, where it cuts the division between the two de- 
partments. Dolores Hidalgo is on the same stream, north-west of 
the last town, and is remarkable in the annals of the country as the 


’ Mihlenpfordt. 


314 MINES — SILVER, COPPER, LEAD, ETC.—ZACATECAS. 


residence of the priest Hidalgo, under whose auspices the revolu- 
tionary movement against Spain originated. 

The mineral products of this State have been and still continue 

very valuable. The chief silver mines are those of Guanajuato, 
Villalpando, Monte de San Nicolas, Santa Rosa, Santa Anna, S. 
Antonio de las Minas, Comanja, El Capulin, Comangilla, San Luis 
de la Paz, San Rafael de los Lobos, El Duranzo, San Juan de la 
Chica, Rincon de Zenteno, San Pedro de los Pozos, El Palmar de 
la Viga, San Miguel y San Felipé. All these mines and mineral 
districts recognize the jurisdiction of the Deputacion de Mineria 
de Guanajuato, although some of them lie out of the immediate 
boundaries of the State. 
_ Besides the silver yielded at these places, copper and iron are 
produced by some of them; and at El Gigante cinnabar has been 
discovered disseminated among other substances. Lead is taken 
abundantly from the mine of La Targea; but the mining operations 
of the State are chiefly confined to silver. 

In the southern part of the State large quantities of soda are found 
near Celaya, Salamanca and Valle de Santiago; and in the north, 
in the vicinity of San Felipé, the earth is impregnated, in many 
places, with nitrate of potash or nitre. Mineral waters and ther- 
mal springs exist on the southern slope of the Cerro del Cubilete, 
near Silao, and are used by invalids; while in the jurisdictions of 
Leon, near Irapuato or San Miguel Allende and Celaya, other warm 
and sulphur springs are found which are beneficially frequented by 
persons who suffer from rheumatism and cutaneous diseases. 


THE STATE OF ZACATECAS. 


This rich metallic region and State lies between the 21st and 25th 
degrees of north latitude and 1024 and 105} west longitude from 
Paris. It is bounded on the north by Durango and Nuevo Leon 
on the east by San Luis Potosi; on the south-east by Guanajuato ; 
and on the west and south-west by Jalisco. Its greatest breadth, 
from Sombrereté to Real del Ramos, in the State of San Luis, is 
fifty-seven leagues, and its extreme length is 90. ‘The superficial 
area of the State is reckoned at 2,355 square leagues. 

Zacatécas is a mountain country of the high pleateau of Mexico, — 
cut up by spurs of the Cordillera and inhospitably arid. The re- 
gion between Catorcé in San. Luis Potosi, and Sombrereté and 
Mazapil in Zacatécas is a broad plain, interspersed by a few swell- 


eae 
ni 


es 


SIZE. 


"SVOELVOVZ 


KS 


SS aS See 


Ws 


—_—_—_—_—_—_S_L_=S—S=S=sS= 


BOUNDARIES — AGRICULTURE -— DIVISIONS—-POPULATION. 315 


ing knolls, and an occasional group of hills or small mountains. 
The agricultural productions are of course suitable to such a geo- 
logical structure; but in the Hactendas de Ganado, or cattle farms, 
immense herds are constantly raised by the thrifty vaqueros of this 
region. As the country is unusually dry, water tanks, algibes, and 
norias are established on all the estates, and are watched with the 
greatest care. ‘There is no river of any note whatever in Zacatécas. 
The Arroyo de Zacatécas, the Rio Xeres, the Rio Perfido, del Ma- 
guey, and Bajiuelos, are but slender streams. 

Zacatécas is divided into eleven partidos or districts. Ist. Za- 
catécas, 2d Aguas Calientes, 3d Sombrereté, 4th Tlaltenango, 5th 


‘Villa Nueva, 6th Fresnillo, 7th Xeres, 8th Mazapil, 9th Pifos, 


10th Nieves, and 11th Juchipila; possessing in all 3 cities, 5 market 


towns, 34 villages and mining works, 139 agricultural and cattle 
_ farms, 562 smaller similar establishments, 683 ranchos, 11 convents 
for monks, 4 for nuns, and four hospitals. The population has been 


calculated at about 350,000; and it is remarkable that, according to 


‘Yeliable statistical data, 14, 937 more individuals were Hein than died 


in this State during the year 1830. 


les, 14,709 males, 7,012 Births, 28,795 
h males, ) Death 90 0h 9 29) 
a females, 14,086 females, 6,846 Deaths, 13,858 


28,795 13,858 Increase, 14,937 


The most valuable agricultural district lies in the district of Aguas 
Calientes. The best cultivation begins at the hacienda of San Ja- 
cinto, 12 leagues from the town of Zacatécas, and in this region it 
is reckoned that the farmers annually gather from their harvests, 
140,952 fanegas of Corn (of 150 Ibs.); 4,719 cargas (of 300 lbs.) 


of wheat; 7,293 fanegas of frijoles or beds: and 4,291 arrébas (Om og 


25 Ibs. each 5 of chile. 

The mainspring of the wealth of Zacatécas is its fiitlepal- pede. 
tion. The vein of the Veta Negra of Sombrereté has been the most 
productive in the new or old world. El PaveHon, La Veta Grande, 
San Bernabé, and the isolated hill of Proafio at Fresnillo constantly 
yielded in former times the most. extraordinary results for the labor 
bestowed in working them. ‘Their present value may be estimated 
from the chapter on Mines in the preceding book. 

The chief cities, towns and villages of this State are the capital, 
ZACATECAS, containing from 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. It lies 
in 22° 47’ 19" of north latitude and 164° 47! 41” west longitude, at 
an elevation of 7,976 feet. 


316 | TOWNS—ZACATECAS— AGUAS CALIENTES, ETC. 


The town itself is not visible-until the traveller approaches within 
a mile and a half, when it is seen below following the turns of a 
deep barranca or ravine, of which the mountain of la Bufa, with a 
chapel on its crest, forms one side. The streets are narrow and 
dirty, and swarm with uncleanly children, whose appearance, like 
that of their squalid parents, is by no means prepossessing. But 
the distant view of the city is picturesque from the number of reli- 
gious edifices which rise above the roofs of the other buildings. In 
the vicinity of the plaza there are some fine houses, and the market 
place presents a curious and busy provincial scene. 

Aguas CaLiEnTEs is situated upon the banks of a stream of the 
Same name, in a broad and rich valley, at the distance of 25 leagues 
south of Zacatécas. The neighborhood is famous for its warm 
thermal springs; ‘the chief of which, El Bamio de la Cantera, lies a 
league south-west of the town. Aguas Calientes contains several 
thousand inhabitants and is celebrated for its woollen manufactories, 
among which the one belonging to the family of Pimentel employed 
about 350 men and women at its looms. 

F RESNILLO is a mining town, and capital of its district, 14 leagues 
north-west from Zacatécas, in the wide plain which divides the 
mountains of Santa Cruz and Organos from the mountain ranges 
about Zacatécas. It lies at the foot of the isolated knoll of Proajio, 
in which its mines are situated. The neighborhood of the town is 
pretty, but the region which intervenes between it and Sombrereté 
is a waste and sterile moorland. 

SOMBRERETE is a mining town, and capital of its district, 25 
leagues north-westward of Fresnillo, lying at the foot of the moun- 
tain of Sombreretillo, or ‘little hat,” whose name is derived from 
a singular formation of rock on its summit which resembles that 
article of dress. In its vicinity are the once renowned and rich 
mines of La Veta Negra and E] Pavellon. 

Upon the table lands between Sombrereté, Fresnillo, and Catorcé, 
in the State of San Luis, are several towns or villages deserving of 
notice, and the hacienda of Sierra Hermosa, a cattle estate, which 
is one of the most remarkable in the Republic for its extent and pro- 
duction. It covers an area of 262 sitios or square leagues, and sup- 
ports immense herds of horned cattle, horses, mules, goats and 
sheep. The latter, alone, are estimated at 200,000 head, about 
30,000 of which are annually disposed of. The wool yielded by 
these animals amounts to from 4,000 to 5,000 arrobas yearly. 

The other towns and villages of note are AsIENTOS DE [BaRRA, 
Xeres, Villanueva, Mazapil. 


ae at 


RUINS OF QUEMADA. . 


PRODUCT AND VALUE OF ZACATECAN MINES. Blt 


The Sierra de Pitios, Chalchiguitéc, Los Angelos, Plateros, and 
other metallic deposits were formerly celebrated for their productive 
value ; but they are now either partially or entirely abandoned. 

We may deduce some interesting statistical information from the 
labors of Berghes in regard to the mineral wealth of Zacatécas and 
the productiveness of its mines. According to the tables of this 
writer, published in 1834, it appears that from the year 

1548 to 1810 the mines of this region produced $588,041 ,956 


1810 to 1818 “s e¢ €s 20,060,363 
1818 to 1825 5 $s es 17,912,475 
1825 to 1832 ss es ck 30,028,540 
$656,043,335 
These rates gave an annual mean product, from 
1548 to 1810 $6 e ge of $2,244,434 
1810 to 1818 ef es ny te 12,007,040 
1818 to 1825 és gf rs 6 2,558,925 
1825 to 1832 es Cy aoe “6 4,003,128 


It will be seen by reference to our table on page 88 of this volume, 
that the value of the products of Zacatécas in the ten years from 
1835 to 1844, was $43,384,215; giving a mean annual rate of 
$4,338,421, and exhibiting the important fact, in spite of revolu- 
tionary troubles and consequent social, commercial and industrial 
disorganization, that the mineral yield of this region, instead of 
diminishing, has steadily wncreased with every year. In 1845, the 
Mint in Zacatééas issued $4,429,353. 


The State of Zacatécas contains some remarkable remains of In- 
dian architecture on the Cerro DE Los EptFicios, situated two 
leagues northerly from the village of Villanueva, twelve leagues 
south-west from Zacatécas, and about one league north of La Que- 
mada, at an elevation of 7,406 feet above the sea. 


RUINS NEAR QUEMADA. 


‘c We set out,” says Captain Lyon, in a volume of his travels in 
Mexico, ‘‘on our expedition to the Cerro de los Edificios under the 
guidance of an old ranchero, and soon arrived at the foot of the ab- 
rupt and steep rock on which the buildings are situated. Here we 
perceived two ruined heaps of stones, flanking the entrance to the 
causeway, ninety-three feet broad, commencing at four hundred feet 
from the cliff. 

‘¢ A space of about six acres had been enclosed by a broad wall, 

20 


318 REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY IN ZACATECAS, 


the foundations of which are still visible, running’ first to the south 
and afterwards to the east. Off its south-western angle stands a 
high mass of stones which flanks the causeway. In outward ap- 
pearance it is of a pyramidal form, owing to the quantities of stones 
piled against it either by design or by its own ruin; but on close 
examination its figure could be traced by the remains of solid walls 
to have been a square of thirty-one feet by the same height: the heap 
immediately opposite is lower and more scattered, but, in all pro- 
bability, formerly resembled it. Hence the grand causeway runs 
to. the north-east till it reaches the ascent of the cliff, which, as I 
have already observed, is about four hundred yards distant. Here 
again are found two masses of ruins, in which may be traced the 
same construction as that before described; and it is not improba- 
ble that these two towers guarded the entrance to the citadel. In 
the centre of the causeway, which is raised about a foot and has its 
rough pavement uninjured, is a large heap of stones, as if the re- 


mains of some altar, round which we can trace, notwithstanding the 


accumulation of earth and vegetation, the paved border of flat slabs 
arranged in the figure of a six rayed star. 

‘We did not enter the city by the principal road, but led 
our horses with some difficulty up the steep mass formed by the 
ruins of a defensive wall, inclosing a quadrangle two hundred and 
forty feet by two hundred, which to the east, is sheltered by a strong 
wall of unhewn stones, eight feet in thickness and eighteen in height, 
A raised terrace of twenty feet in width passes round the northern 
and eastern sides of this space, and on its south-east corner is yet 
standing a round pillar of rough stones, of the same height as the 
wall, and nineteen feet in circumference. 

‘‘ There appear to have been five other pillars on the east, and 
four on the northern terrace; and as the vein of the plain which lies 
to the south and west is very extensive, | am inclined to believe 
that the square has always been open in these directions. Adjoin- 
ing to this we entered by the eastern side to another quadrangle, 
surrounded by perfect walls of the same height and thickness as the 
former one, and measuring one hundred and thirty-four feet by one 
hundred and thirty-seven. In this were yet standing fourteen very 
well constructed pillars, of equal dimensions with that in the adjoin- 
ing enclosure, and arranged four in length and three in breadth of 
the quadrangle, from which, on every side, they separated a space 
of twenty-three feet in width, probably a pavement of a portico of 
which they once supported the roof. In their construction, as well 
as that of all the walls which we saw, a common clay having straw 


a ee ee ee ee 


et 


ee eee 


t 


RUINS OF QUEMADA. 319 


mixed with it has been used. Rich grass was growing in the spa- 
cious court where Aztec monarchs may once have feasted; and our 
cattle were so delighted with it that we left them to graze while we 
walked about three hundred yards to the northward, over a very 
wide parapet, and reached a perfect, square, flat-topped pyramid of 
large unhewn stones. It was standing unattached to any other 
buildings, at the foot of the eastern brow of the mountain which 
rises abruptly behind it. On the eastern face is a platform of 
twenty-eight feet in width, faced by a parapet wall of fifteen feet, 
and from the base of this extends a second platform with a para- 
pet like the former, and one hundred and eighteen feet wide. 
These form the outer defensive boundary of the mountain, which 
from its figure has materially favored its construction. There is 
every reason to believe that this eastern face must have been of great 
importance. A slightly raised and paved causeway descends across 
the valley, in the direction of the rising sun, and being continued on 
the opposite side of a stream which flows through it, can be traced 
up the mountains at two miles distant, till it terminates at the base 
of an immense stone edifice»which probably may also have been a 
pyramid. Although a stream (Rio del Partido) runs meandering 
through the plain from the northward, about midway between the 
two elevated buildings. I can scarcely imagine that the causeway 
should have been formed for the purpose of bringing water to the 
city, which is far more easy of access than in many other directions 
much nearer to the river, but must have been construted for impor- 
tant purposes between the two places in question ; and it is not im- 
probable once formed the street between the frail huts of the poorer 
inhabitants. ‘The base of the large pyramid measured fifty feet, and 
I ascertained by ascending with a line that its height was precisely 
the same. Its flat top was covered with earth and a little vegeta- 
tion: and our guide asserted, although he knew not where he ob- 
tained the information, that it was once surmounted by a statue. 
Off the south-east corner of this building, and about fifteen yards 
distant, is to be seen the edge of a circle of stones about eight feet 
in diameter, enclosing as far as we could judge by scraping away 
the soil, a bowl-shaped pit, in which the action of fire was plainly 
observable; and the earth from which we picked some pieces of pot- 
tery, was evidently darkened by an admixture of soot and ashes. 
At the distance of one hundred yards south-west of the large pyra- 
mid is a small one, twelve feet square, and much injured. This is 
situated on somewhat higher ground, in the steep part of the ascent 
to the mountain’s brow. On its eastern face, which is towards the 


320 RUINS OF QUEMADA. 


declivity, the height is eighteen feet ; and apparently there have been 
steps by which to ascend to a quadrangular space, having a broad 
terrace around it, and extending east one hundred feet by a width 
of fifty. In the centre of this enclosure is another bowl-shaped pit, 
somewhat wider than the first. Hence we began our ascent to the 
upper works, over a well buttressed yet ruined wall built of the 
rock. Its height on the steepest side is twenty-one feet, and the 
width on the summit, which is level, with an extensive platform, is 
the same. This is a double wall of ten feet, having been first con- 
structed and then covered with a very smooth kind of cement, after 
which the second has been built against it. The platform, (which 
faces to the south, and may, to a certain extent, be considered as a 
ledge from the cliff,) is eighty-nine feet by seventy-two; and on its 
northern centre stand the ruins of a square building, having within 
it an open space of ten feet by eight, and of the same depth. In 
the middle of the quadrangle is to be seen a mound of stones eight 
feet high. A little farther on we entered by a broad opening be- 
tween the perfect and massive walls, to a square of one hundred and 
fifty feet. This space was surrounded on the south-east and west 
by an elevated terrace of three feet by twelve in breadth, having in 
the centre of each side steps by which to descend to the square. 
Each terrace was backed by a wall of twenty-eight feet by eight or 
nine. From the south are two broad entrances, and on the east is 
one of thirty feet, communicating with a perfect enclosed square of 
one hundred feet, while on the west is one small opening, leading to 
an artificial cave or dungeon, of which I shall presently speak. 

‘‘To the north, the square is bounded by the steep mountain; 
and, in the centre of that side, stands a pyramid of seven ledges or 
stages, which in many places are quite perfect. It is flat topped, 
has four sides, and measures at the base thirty-eight by thirty-five 
feet, while in height it is nineteen. Immediately behind this, and 
on all that portion of the hill that presents itself to the square, are 
numerous tiers of seats either broken in the rock or built of rough 
stones. In the centre of the square, and due south of the pyramid, 
is a small quadrangular building, seven feet by five in height. The 
summit is imperfect, but has unquestionably been an altar; and from 
the whole character of the space in which it stands, the peculiar 
form of the pyramid, the surrounding terrace, and the seats or steps 
on the mountain, there can be little doubt that this has been the 
grand Hall of Sacrifice or Assembly, or perhaps both. 

‘Passing to the westward, we next saw some narrow enclosed 
spaces, apparently portions of an aqueduct leading from some tanks 


haat oa Nag ph 


RUINS OF QUEMADA. oot 


on the summit of the mountain, and then we were shown to the 
mouth of the cave, or subterraneous passage, of which so many sus- 
picious stories are yet told and believed. One of the principal ob- 
jects of our expedition had been to enter this place, which none of 
the natives had ever ventured to do, and we came provided with 
torches accordingly: unfortunately however, the mouth had very re- 
cently fallen in, and we could merely see that it was a narrow, well 
built entrance, bearing in many places the remains of good smooth 
plastering. A large beam of cedar once supported the roof, but its 
removal by the country people had caused the dilapidation which 
we now observed. Mr. Sindal, in knocking out some pieces of 
regularly burnt brick, soon brought a ruin upon his head, but es- 
caped without injury; and this accident caused a thick cloud of 
yellow dust to fall, which, on issuing from the cave, assumed a bright 
appearance under the full glare of the sun;—an effect not lost on 
the natives, who became more than ever persuaded that an immense 
treasure lay hidden in that mysterious place. ‘The general opinion 
of those who remember the excavation is that it is very deep; and 
from many circumstances there is a probability of its having beena 
place of confinement for victims. Its vicinity to the great hall, in 
which there can be little doubt that the sanguinary rites were held, 
is one argument in favor of this supposition; but there is another 
equally forcible; —its immediate proximity to a cliff of about one 
hundred and fifty feet, down which the bodies of victims may have 
been precipitated, as was the custom at the mhuman sacrifices of 
the Aztecs.! A road or causeway to be noticed in another place, 
terminates at the foot of the precipice, exactly beneath the cave and 
over-hanging rock, and conjecture can form no other idea of its in- 
tended utility, unless as being in some manner connected with the 
dungeon. ) 

‘Hence we ascend to a variety of buildings, all constructed with 
the same regard to strength, and inclosing spaces on far too large a 
scale for the abode of common people. On the extreme ridge of the 
mountain were several tolerably perfect tanks. 

‘“In a subsequent visit to this extraordinary place, I saw some 
buildings which had at first escaped my notice. These were situa- 
ted on the summit of a rock terminating the ridge, and about a mile 
and a half north north-west of the citadel. 

‘<The first is a building originally eighteen feet square, but having 


''The writings of Clavigero, Solis, Bernal Dias, and others describe this mode of 
disposing of the bodies of those whose hearts had been torn out and offered to the 
idol. 


322 RUINS OF QUEMADA. 


the addition of sloping walls to give it a pyramidal form. It is flat 
topped, and on the centre of its southern face there appears to have 
been steps to ascend to its summit. The second is a square altar, 
its height and base being each about sixteen feet. These buildings 
are surrounded at no great distance by a strong wall, and at a quar- 
ter of a mile to the northward, advantage is taken of a precipice to 
construct another wall of twelve feet in width from its brink. On 
a small flat space between this and the pyramid are the remains of 
an open square edifice, to the southward of which are two long 
mounds of stone, each extending about thirty feet ; and to the north- 
east is another ruin, having large steps up its side. I should con- 
ceive the highest wall of the citadel to be three hundred feet above 
the plain, and the base rock surmounts it by about thirty feet more. 
‘<The whole place in fact, from its isolated situation, the disposi- 
tion of its defensive walls, and the favorable figure of the rock must 
have been impregnable to Indians; and even European troops would 
have found great difficulty in ascending those works which we have 
ventured to name the Citadel. There is no doubt that the greater 
mass of the nation who once dwelt here must have been established 
on the plain beneath, since from the summit of the rock we could 
distinctly trace three straight and very extensive causeways diver- 
ging from that over which we first passed. The most remarkable 
of these roads runs south-west for two miles, is forty-six feet in 
width, and crossing the grand causeway is continued to the foot of 
the cliff immediately beneath the cave which I have described. Its 
more distant extreme is terminated by a high and long artificial 
mound immediately beyond the river toward the hacienda of La 
Quemada. We could trace the second road south and south-west 
to a small rancho named Cayotl, about four miles distant, and the 
third ran south-west by south still farther, ceasing, as the country 
people informed us, at a mountain six miles distant. All these roads 
have been slightly raised, were paved with rough stones, still visible 
in many places above the grass, and were perfectly straight. 
‘‘From the flatness of the fine plain over which they extended, I 
cannot conceive them to have been constructed as paths, since the 
people who walked barefoot and used no beasts of burden, must 
naturally have preferred the smooth earthen foot-ways which pre- 
sented themselves on every side, to these roughly paved roads. If 
this be admitted, it is not difficult to suppose that they were the 
centres of streets whose huts constructed of the same kind of frail 
materials as those of the present day, must long since have disap- 
peared. Many places on the plain are thickly strewn with stones 


? 


RUINS OF QUEMADA. 323 


which may once have formed materials for the town; and around 
the cattle farms there are extensive modern walls which, not impro- 
bably, were constructed from the nearest street. At all events, 
whatever end these causeways answered, the citadel itself still re- 
mains, and by its size and strength confirms the accounts given by 
Cortéz, Bernal Diaz, and others of the conquerors of the magnitude 
and strength of the Mexican edifices, but which have been doubted 
by Robertson, De Pau, and others. We observed also in some 
sheltered places, the remains of good plaster, confirming the ac- 
counts above alluded to; and there can be little doubt that the pre- 
sent rough, yet magnificent buildings were once encased in wood, as 
ancient Mexico, the towns of Yucatan, Tabasco, and many other 
places are described to have been in the voyage of Juan De Gri- 
jalvis in 1518, and also in the writings of Diaz, Cortéz and 
Clavigero. 

“<The Cerro de Edificios and the mountains of the surrounding 
range, are all of gray porphyry, easily fractured into slabs, and this, 
with comparatively little labor, has furnished materials for the edi- 
fices which crown its summit. We saw no remains of obsidian 
among the ruins or on the plain — which is remarkable, as it is the 
general substance of which the knives and arrow-heads of the 
Mexicans were formed; but a few pieces of very compact por- 
phyry were lying about and some appeared to have been chipped 
into a rude resemblance of arrow-heads. 

‘<Not a trace of the ancient name of this interesting place, or that 
of the nation which inhabited it, is now to be found among the 
neighboring people, who merely distinguished the isolated rock and 
buildings by one common name, ‘ Los Edificios.’ I had inquired of 
the best instructed people about these ruins; but all my researches 
were unavailing until I fortunately met with a note in the Abbé 
Clavigero’s history of Mexico which appears to throw some lght on 
the subject. ‘The situation of Chico-moztoc, where the Mexicans 
sojourned nine years is not known, but it appears to be that place, 
twenty miles distant from Zacatécas, towards the south, where there 
are still some remains of an immense edifice, which, according to the 
tradition of the ancient inhabitants of that district was the work of 
the Aztecs during their migration; and it certainly cannot be 
ascribed to any other people, the Zacatecanos themselves being so 
barbarous as neither to live in houses nor to know how to build 
them’)? 


GH APT aR ee: 


STATE OF SAN LUIS POTOSI — BOUNDARIES — LAKES — RIVERS — 
CLIMATE — DEPARTMENTS — PRODUCTS — SAN -“LUIS)——f0Wwae 
= MINING REGION. — NEW LEON — BOUNDARIES — CHARACTER 
— RIVERS — CLIMATE — DEPARTMENTS — AGRICULTURE — GRA- 
ZING, ETC.— MONTEREY.—— COAHUILA — BOUNDARY — POSITION 
— CLIMATE — PRODUCTIONS — TOWNS. —STAT«&® OF DURANGO — 
BOUNDARY — CHARACTER — DIVISIONS — STREAMS — PRODUC- 
TIONS —CITY OF DURANGO —TOWNS—MINES — IRON — SILVER 
— INDIAN NECROLOGY — CAVE BURIAL. 


STATE .OFgSAN LUIS POG 


CITY OF SAN LUIS POTOSI. 


The State of San Luis Potosi is bounded on the east by the State 
of Tamaulipas; on the north by Nuevo Leon; on the west by Zaca- 
técas ; on the south by Guanajuato and Querétaro, and on the south- 
east by Vera Cruz. ‘The western portion of the State is quite 
mountainous; but towards Tamaulipas, the Cordillera is somewhat 


CLIMATE — DEPARTMENTS — PRODUCTS—SAN LUIS. 325 


broken, and a lower hilly country stretches out towards the south- 
east. The Panuco and the Santander are the only two rivers, and 
the lagunes of Chariel and Chila the only two lakes of importance 
in the State. 

The climate of the mountain region and table lands is cold, while 
that of the lower elevations and flats towards the eastern boundary 
is much warmer, and, at certain seasons, very unhealthy. 

The State of San Luis Potosi is divided into four departments, 
ten cantons, and fifty-two municipalities, with a population of over 
300,000. 

1st. Department of San Luis with the cantons San Luis, Santa 
Maria del Rio and Guadaleazar. 

2d. Department of Rio VERDE, with the cantons of Rio Verde 
and del Maiz. 

3d. Department of Tancanuuitz, with the cantons of Tancan- 
huitz and De Valles. 

Ath. Department of VENapo, with the cantons of Venado, Ca- 
torcé and Ojocaliente. 

The agriculturists of San Luis are engaged chiefly in the produc- 
tion of corn, wheat, barley and fodder; all of which are yielded 
plentifully by the genial soil of the State. But the toils of the far- 
mer and the generosity of the ground are not always repaid by suit- 
able prices or a good market. Corn ranges from fifty cents to 
seventy-five the fanega; and even at this rate often lacks purcha- 
sers. Cattle are raised in large quantities, as in Zacatécas, Durango 
and Chihuahua. Manufactures are progessive. Woollen and cot- 
ton fabrics are produced of excellent quality and favor among the 
masses. Glass, leather, pottery and metallic wares are also made in 
Jarge quantities, and a busy trafhe in foreign goods is carried on 
with the port of Tampico, and the States of Zacaiécas, Durango, . 
Sonora, New Leon, Guanajuato, Mechoacan and Jalisco. ‘The po- 
sition of this State, and especially of its principal town, naturally 
makes it an entrepot between the coast and the interior, for imports 
from America and Europe. Nevertheless, a small trade, only, ex- 
ists in home products, and these are chiefly sent to New Leon and 
Coahuila. 

The chief towns are San Luis Porost, the capital of the State 
and seat of government, lying on a level plain, among the steep 
declivities of the Cordillera in the neighborhood of the sources of 
_ the Panuco, in 22° 4’ 58” north latitude, 103° 7! west longitude 
from Paris, 5,959 feet above the sea. It is a regular, well built 
city, with broad, paved streets, a fine plaza or public square, and 

2P 


326 TOWNS—MINING REGION. 


six handsome churches, three convents, and one hospital. Its 
population may be estimated at 35,000. 

GUADALCAZAR, 1s the capital of the partido or district of that 
name, 18 leagues north-west of San Luis Potosi, in 22° 31! 25! 
north latitude and 102° 59’ 30” west longitude from Paris, 5,132 
feet above the sea, in a valley south of a mountain group which was 
once extremely productive in mineral riches. 

Rio VERDE is the capital of the Department of Rio Verde, 34 
leagues east of San Luis. The town of VauLues, with 3,500 in- 
habitants, les on the left bank of the Rio Montezuma, in the tierra 
caliente, on the boundary of the State of Vera Cruz. Its neighbor- 
hood is rich in sugar plantations and in tropical productions gen- 
erally. 

Venavo, 29 leagues north of San Luis, is the chief town of its 
Department; it lies on the road from the capital of the State to 
Catorcé, and contains about 8,000 inhabitants. 

In the partido OsocaLrENTE lies the town of that name, 28 
leagues north-west of the city of San Luis, and 10 leagues south- 
east of the capital of Zacatécas, 6,714 feet above the sea. 

CaTorcé is a mining town, likewise in the department of Venado, 
and is sometimes known by the sounding title of ““ReaL DE LA 
PURISIMA CoNCEPCION DE ALAMOS DE LOS CaTorcé.”? The 
name is supposed to be derived from the slaughter of fourteen Span- 
ish soldiers who are said to have been killed in its vicinity by a 
tribe of savages inhabiting these wild mountain regions before the 
discovery of the adjacent mines. 

Nothing can be more dreary, bleak and desolate than the aspect 
of the Cordillera of Catorcé. A few narrow mule paths, or the worn 
bed of a mountain torrent alone break the monotonous coloring of 
the mass; and the town placed at the great height of 8,788 feet 
above the sea, is completely hidden from below by the bold brow of 
the mountain.! There is neither a tree nor a blade of grass on the 
steep and sterile flanks of these rocky elevations, though seventy 
years ago the whole district was covered with wood which might 
have endured for centuries had not the improvident and wasteful 
spirit of the first adventurers wantonly destroyed these valuable re- 
sources, Forests were burnt to clear the ground, and the larger 
timber which was required for the mines when they were wrought 
again after the revolution, was brought from a distance of twenty- 
two leagues. 


1 Ward assigns Catorcé an elevation of over 7,760 feet. The statement given in 
the present work is on the more recent authority of Muhlenpfordt. ' 


* 


NEW LEON—BOUNDARIES, CHARACTER, RIVERS, CLIMATE. 327 


On reaching a high ridge above the adjacent valley, the town of 
Catorcé is immediately perceived at the feet of the traveller, lying in 
a hollow beyond which the mountain steeps again rise precipitously 
above a thousand feet,—the course of the Veta Madre, or great 
‘mother vein,” being distinctly traced upon it by the buildings be- 
longing to the mines and miners. ‘The site of the town is extremely 
singular, as it is intersected by deep ravines, or barrancas, upon the 
ledges of which many of the dwellings are erected. Some of these 
strange edifices, like those of Edinburg, have one story on one side, 
and two or three on the other ; and most of them are surrounded by 
massive fragments of rock, amongst which the laborers shelter 
themselves from inclement weather. 

In this region the most valuable mines of the State of San Luis 
Potosi have been found and wrought. 

‘Within a few years past a profitable quicksilver mine was discov- 
ered, south of the capital, in the jurisdiction of the Hacienda de Vil- 
lela. This mine, in the months of August and September, 1843, 
produced 1,068 pounds of the metal en caldo. 


Tot sTtTAtE OF NEW. LEON, 


This fine portion of the present Mexican Confederacy was colo- 
nized at the end of the sixteenth century by the Viceroy Monterey, 
and was then known by the proud title of En Nuevo Rryno bE 
Leon, or, the New Kingdom of Leon. The modern State is 
bounded on the east by Tamaulipas; on the north by Coahuila; on 
the west by that State and Durango; on the south-west and south 
by Zacatécas and San Luis Potosi, 

The geological formation of this State is generally mountainous. 
It lies among the first spurs and ridges of the Sierra Madre, south 
of the Rio Bravo, or Grande del Norte, and is interspersed with 
wide plains and fruitful valleys which produce good crops under 
careful cultivation. The rivers, all of which flow eastwardly towards 
the Gulf of Mexico, are the Rio Tigre, the San Juan, the Rio Blanco 
or Borbén, and the Sabinas, which passes into this State from Coa- 
huila, and falls into the Rio Bravo near Revilla. There are numer- 
ous other small streams and brooks, of no geographical but of con- 
siderable agricultural importance. The climate is generally warm, 
except among the higher ranges of mountains; and, in summer, 
it is usually extremely hot, though healthy. The population is esti- 
mated at about 130,000. 


328 DEPARTMENTS, AGRICULTURE, GRAZING, ETC., MONTEREY. 


- New Leon is divided into five Partidos or Deparanana with 25 
districts. 

Ist. Department of Monterey, with seven districts: Monterey, 
Salinas Victorias, Absalo, San Nicolas Hidalgo, Pesqueria Grande, 
Santa Catarina, Mia Guajuco. 

2d. Department of Cadereyta Ximenes, with bie districts : Ca- 
dereyta, Santa Maria, Cerralvo, Agualequas, and Santa Maria de las 
Aldamas. 

3d. Department of Monte Morélos, with three districts: Monte 
Morélos, Mota and China. 

4th. Department of Linares, with five districts: Linares, Galéana, 
Hualahuises, Rio Blanco and Concepcion. 

Sth. Department of Aldama, with five districts: Villa Aldama, 
Vallecillo, Sabinas, Lampazos and Tlascala. 

The agriculture of New Leon has not been as carefully and suc- 
cessfully pursued as it might have been, in the hands of a different 
population. The annual product of the soil has been stated by the 
Mexican authorities, to average 120,600 fanegas of corn; 5,700 
fanegas of frijoles or beans, and 46,500 hundred-weight of sugar ;— 
the home market affording one dollar per fanega for corn, three dol- 
lars per fanega for frijoles, and three dollars per hundred weight for 
raw sugar. 

The chief occupation of the landholders is the grazing of cattle, 
and the yearly return of animals, shows that the State is quite pro- 
ductive in this branch of rural labor. It is calculated by official 
reporters that New Leon annually feeds and sends to market :— 
50,000 horses, 12,000 mules, 75,000 large horned cattle, and 850,- 
000 sheep, goats, and hogs. The local value of which is six dollars 
a head for horses, twelve for a mule, four for neat cattle, and from 
fifty cents to a dollar, a piece, for sheep, goats, and swine. ‘The 
State is regarded as rich in minerals of silver and lead, but the 
mining operations are almost abandoned, except at Cerralvo and 
Vallecillo. Salt is made at the salt mines on the banks of the Rio 
Tigre. The domestic trade is carried on in State productions with 
Mexico and Querétaro, and North American or European fabrics 
are imported through the port of Tampico de Tamaulipas. 

The capital of the State is Montrrrey, in 25° 59! north latitude 
and 102° 33' west longitude from Paris, about 220 leagues north of 
the city of Mexico, situated on the plain at the foot of the Sierra 
Madre on the margin of one of the affluents of the Rio Tigre. _ Its 
population is estimated at about 13,000, and its climate is consid- 
ered agreeable and healthy. Monterey is connected with the his- 


age te 


Sehe pres 


= Si ait eae sng 


” iy 


COAHUILA — BOUNDARY — POSITION— CLIMATE. 329 


tory of North American victories, by the capitulation it made to 
General Taylor, September, 1846. ; 

The other principal towns, villages and settlements in New Leon, 
are San Fexieé pe Linares, containing 6,000 inhabitants, 40 
leagues south-east of Monterey; Buena Vista, a village 7 leagues 
north-west of Linares; Cadereyta Ximenes, a small town of 2,600 
people, 10 leagues south-east of Monterey; Salinas Victorias, 10 
leagues north of Monterey ; Pesqueria Grande, a village north-west 
from Monterey, and formerly the site of silver mines and salt works ; 
Villa Aldama; San Carlos de Vallecillo; Lampazos; Agualequas ; 
China, and Galeana. | 


ee STATE OF COAHUILA. 


Coahuila was formerly united with the ancient Mexican province 
of Texas, until the revolution, which resulted in the independence 
of the latter, sundered the bond and added it to the United States 
of North America. The present State of Coahuila is bounded on 
the east by New Leon and ‘Tamaulipas ; on the south by Zacatécas; 
on the west by the Indian territory known as the Bolson de Mapi- 
mi, Durango and Chihuahua; and on the north by Texas. 

The whole State lies on the first steeps of the Sierra Madre; its 
southern portion, beyond the Rio Sabinas, is extremely mountain- 
ous; but from the northern bank of this stream, the land sinks gra- 
dually into levels until it is lost in the well-watered and _ fruitful 
plains of Texas. ‘The principal rivers in this State are the Rio 
Grande del Norte or Rio Bravo, the Sabinas and the Rio Tigre; 
and the chief lakes or lagunes are those of Parras and Agua Verde. 

The climate of Coahuila is equable and healthy. From the mid- 
dle of May to the middle of August the greatest heat is generally 
experienced, and, during this season, the country is torn by high 
winds which nearly every day begin to blow at sunset. The popu- 
lation of the State is estimated at about 97,000. Large bodies of 
Indians inhabit the lonelier regions of Coahuila; and, in the north, 
beyond the Rio Grande, the country swarms with ferocious tribes 
of Lipans and Cumanches. Agriculture is not flourishing though 
the soil of large portions of the State is good and capable of pro- 
duction. ‘The remote position of Coahuila, and the thinness of its 
population, have probably obliged the inhabitants to congregate in 
towns and villages where they might afford each other mutual protec- 


330 PRODUCTIONS — TOWNS — DUBANGO — BOUNDARY. 


tion against the frontier savages; and thus they have been induced 
to abandon agriculture for the wilder life of vaqueros or herdsmen. 
Wheat, corn, beans and vegetables are easily raised in the best parts 
of the State, and in the vicinity of Parras extensive vineyards have 
been planted which produce an excellent wine. Horses, mules, 
wine and corn form the home commerce of the State; while in the 
neighborhood of Santa Rosa, and of two or three other villages, a 
small number of persons are engaged in the exploration of mines. 

The principal town of Coahuila is SALTILLO, or, as it is some- 
times called, Léona- Vicario, situated in the south near the boundary 
of Nuevo Leon, twenty-five leagues westward of Monterey, at the 
foot of a hill in the midst of a fruitful region. Its geographical po- 
sition, according to Wislizenius, is about 25° 25/ of north lati- 
tude, and 101° west longitude from Greenwich. It is a well built 
town, whose straight streets radiate at right angles from the public. 
square, in the middle of which a tasteful fountain constantly sup- 
plies the population with excellent water. The population exceeds 
20,000; and the town is celebrated for the production of woollen 
blankets and serapes or ponchos, which are in demand all over the 
Republic. 

San Frrnanpo, or, La Villa de Rosas, is a town and military 
post in the north of the State, south of the Rio Grande, containing 
about 3,000 inhabitants. 

Monctova, is a town of 3,700 inhabitants on the Coahuila, an 
affluent of the Rio Tigre. 

Parras lies west of Saltillo, on the east bank of the lake of the 
same name, and some years ago was estimated to contain nearly 
17,000 inbabitants, including the adjacent farmers, planters and 
their laborers. It is celebrated for its grapes and wine, as we have 
already remarked. 

The other villages and settlements worthy of note are Villa Longia, 
Viesca y Bustamante, Santa Rosa, Guerrero, Cienegas, Abasoto, 
Nadadores, S. Buenaventura, San Francisco y San Miguel Aguayo, 
Capillania and Candela. 


THE STATE OF DURANGO. 


Durango is bounded on the north by Chihuahua; on the west by 
Sinaloa; on the east by Coahuila, and on the south by Zacatécas 


and Jalisco. 


CHARACTER — DIVISIONS — STREAMS — PRODUCTIONS. 331 


This State is penetrated, from near its centre, in a north-west- 
wardly direction by the main artery of the great Cordillera; and 
whilst the north-eastern section of Durango slopes gradually down- 
ward towards the waters of the Rio Grande, its south-western part 
lies high up among the table lands and mountain spurs that lean 
towards Sinaloa and the Pacific coast. The climate of this moun- 
tainous State is healthy and cool, and its agricultural productions 
are similar to those of other Mexican States whose geological for- 
mation resembles it. 

Durango is divided into twelve partidos or departments :— Du- 
rango, San Juan del Rio, Nombre de Dios, San Dimas, Mesquital 
Papasquiaro, Oro, Indee, ‘Tamasula, Cuencame, Mapimi, and Na- 
sas ; — comprising 38 municipalities, 4 cities, 5 towns, 04 villages, 
52 mineral works, 48 parishes, 111 haciendas, 48 estancias, and 
521 ranchos. The population is estimated at about 300,000. 

The chief streams and bodies of waters in the State are the Rio 
Nasas, Rio Guanabas, Rio Florida, and the lagunes of Cayman and 
Parras, the latter of which, though lying in Coahuila, bounds upon 
the edge of Durango. 

The wealth of Durango exists in its minerals and in its cattle es- 
tates. Its haciendas de cria produce immense quantities of horses, 
mules, sheep and horned beasts which are readily sold in the va- 
rious markets and fairs of the republic. At the hacienda of La 
Sarca, a stock of 200,000 sheep and 40,000 mules and horses, is 
constantly kept on hand, and at Ramos, which contains four hun- 
dred square leagues of land, 80,000 sheep are annually fed for 
their fleece, skins and carcasses. About 150,000 sheep are every 
year sent from Durango to the market of Mexico alone. 

In the valley of Poanas, fifteen leagues east from the capital, 
there are fine corn lands; and in the deep valleys of the Sierra Ma- 
dre even sugar is raised wherever the exposure and the moisture of 
the situation permits the successful cultivation of cane. Indigo and 
coffee grow wild in the warm barrancas on the genial slopes of the 
Cordillera; but neither of these articles is as yet cultivated by the 
planters. Cotton is grown in the vicinity of the Rio Nasas, and 
the town of Cinco Sefnores is the centre of a district covered with 
plantations which supply most of the factories of San Luis Potosi, 
Zacatécas and Saltillo. Mescal, a species of brandy is distilled 
in large quantities from the maguey which grows abundantly in 
Durango. 

The capital of the State, seat of government, and residence 
of the bishop. is the city of Duraneo, sometimes known as La 


302 CITY OF DURANGO—TOWNS— MINES. 


Ciudad de Victoria, or, Guadiana. It lies under 24° 25’ north lati- 
tude and 105° 55! west longitude, at an elevation of 6,847 feet 
above the level of the sea, and sixty-five leagues north-westwardly 
from Zacatécas. It is in the southern section of the State, and was 
originally founded, in 1559, by the Viceroy Velasco, as a military 
post designed for the control of the Chichimecas. Its population 
at present may be estimated at between thirty and forty thousand. 

This capital, and most of the other noted towns in Durango, owe 
their existence to the mineral wealth of the neighborhood. Before 
the mines of Guarisamey were discovered the city of Durango was 
a mere village, or pueblo ranchero, containing, as late as 1783, no 
more than eight thousand inhabitants. But the exploration of the 
mines infused life, activity, and wealth into the population, and the 
State progressed rapidly as its resources were developed. ‘The fine 
streets of the capital, its great plaza or square, its theatre, and all 
its public edifices were erected by Zambrano, who is said to have 
extracted upwards of thirty millions of dollars from his mines at Gua- 
risamey and San Dimas. A mint has been established in the city, 
and, besides this, it possesses factories of cotton, glass and tobacco. 

The towns of Vitta DEL Nomsre DE Dios, with 7,000 inhabi- 
tants, San Juan DEL Rio with 12,000 and Cinco SENoRES DE 
Nasas, are almost the only ones in the State unconnected with 
mines. The two first are supported chiefly by the sale of Mescal 
distilled from the maguey or aloe; and the last, by the extensive 
cotton plantations which have been already mentioned. 

Besides these towns there are the Villa Freniz pre Tamasuta, 
north-west of Durango on the boundary of Sinaloa; PapasquiaRo 
with 6,000 inhabitants; Guarisamey, a mining town, in a deep and 
warm valley, surrounded with steep mountains near 9,000 feet high, 
and containing about 4,000 people; La Villa de Mapimi, north of 
the Rio Nasas, on the borders of the Bolson de Mapimi, and east 
of the Cerro de la Cadena, with about 3,000 inhabitants; Cuen- 
came; El Oro; and many other villages and towns, too numerous 
and too unimportant for separate notice, but which deserve recol- 
lection as indicating the tendency of this region to aggregate popu- 
lation. The State contained in 1533, 250,000 inhabitants, accord- 
ing to good authority, and it is probable that at present it does not 
number less than 300,000. 

Durango is rich in mineral deposits. Iron abounds within a 
quarter of a league of the gates of the capital. The Cerro del Mer- 
cado is entirely composed of iron ores of two distinct qualities, — 
crystallized and magnetic, —but almost equally rich, as they contain 


IRON —SILVER—INDIAN NECROLOGY—CAVE BURIAL. 333 


from sixty to seventy-five per cent. of pure metal. Silver is also 
abundant in the mountains; but the mines have been carelessly 
worked, and, in some places, are abandoned for want of suitable 
machinery or enterprize. The principal districts and places in 
which this precious deposit has been found and profitably wrought, 
are at Gavalines, Guarisamey and San Dimas, in the two last of 
which the fortunate adventurer Zambrano, acquired, during twenty- 
five years, the extraordinary wealth he possessed. ‘These mines are 
divided into Tamasula, Canélas and Sianori, lying on the western 
slope of the Cordillera ; and Guanasevi, Indée, El Oro, Cuencame 
and Mapimi, on the eastern declivities. They lie about five days’ 
journey west of the capital. 

The following interesting sketch of Indian necrology is given in 
the valuable and recent work of Muhlenpfordt upon the Mexican 
Republic. ' 

In the State of Durango, — says this interesting German author, — 
especially in the unexplored portion of the Bolson de Mapimi, 
many relics of antiquity, important for the history of this country, 
are probably hidden. In the summer of 1838, a remarkable old 
Indian cave of sepulture was discovered in this singular region. 
Among the few establishments which enterprizing settlers have 
founded in that lonely territory which is overrun by wild Indians, 
one of the most important is the estate of San Juan de Casta, on its 
western border, 86 leagues north of the town of Durango. Don 
Juan Flores, its proprietor, rambling one day with several com- 
panions in the eastern part of the Bolson, remarked the entrance of 
a cavern on the side of a mountain. He went in, and beheld, as 
he imagined, a great number of Indians sitting silently around the 
walls of the cave. Flores immediately rushed forth in affright, to 
communicate his remarkable discovery to his friends, who at once 
supposed that the story of the adventurer was nothing but an affair 
of fancy, as they no where found any trace or foot path to show 
that the secluded spot had been hitherto visited. But, in order to 


satisfy themselves, they entered the cavern with pine torches, —and 


their sight was greeted by more than a thousand corpses in a state 
of perfect preservation, their hands clasped beneath their knees, 
and sitting on the ground. They were clad in mantles excellently 
woven and wrought of the fibres of a bastard aloe, indigenous in 
these regions, which is called lechuguilla, with bands and scarfs of 
variegated stuffs. Their ornaments were strings of fruit-kernels, 
with beads formed of bone, ear-rings, and thin cylindrical bones 


polished and gilt, and their sandals were made of a species of liana.. 
2a 


CH A Por rh 


STATE OF CHIHUAHUA — POSITION — BOUNDARIES — EXTENT — 
CHARACTERISTICS RIVERS — LAKES — INDIANS —DIVISIONS — 
CLIMATE— PRODUCTIONS — CATTLE ESTATES — MINT — MINES 
—— PRINCIPAL TOWNS — CHIHUAHUA — EL PASO DEL NORTE —— 
MILITARY IMPORTANCE — EL PASO WINE, ETC.— ANTIQUITIES — 
INDIAN RAVAGES—THE BOLSON DE MAPIMI— MEXICAN MODES 
OF TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORTATION — LITERA — MULES — 
ARRIEROS — CONDUCTA — COACHES — FREIGHT WAGONS— MEXI- 
CAN HABIT OF HOME-STAYING — WANT OF EXPLORATION — 
MODERN ADVANCEMENT. 


THE STA TE OP CHABRUAHM UAT 


The State of Chihuahua, containing an area of 17,1514 square 
leagues, or 119,169 English square miles, and reaching from 26° 53! 
36” to 32° 57! 43” north latitude, is bounded on the north by New 
Mexico, east by Coahuila and Texas, south by Durango, south-west 
by Sinaloa, and north-west by Sonora. The great mountain chain 
of Mexico, which is the connecting link between the Rocky Moun- 
tains of the north and the Andes of the south, is here known as the 
Sierra Madre, and occupies chiefly the western part of the State, 
where its elevations attain a vast height, and at length, descend ab- 
ruptly, cut by deep barrancas or ravines, until they are lost in the 
plains of Sonora and Sinaloa. Mexican authorities state the highest 
point of the Sierra Madre, at the Peaks of Jesus Maria, to be 8,441 
feet above the level of the sea. The greater portion of Chihuahua 
consequently lies, like Durango, upon the plateau of Mexico, and 
only a small part upon the western slope of the Sierra Madre. The 
loftier elevations of the Cordillera, as it passes upward from Duran- 
go, lean towards the west until they pass the centre of Chihuahua, 
and then bending once more, nearly north, pursue their way 
through New Mexico into the remote wilderness of our Union. 
Towards the east these steeps become gradually depressed until 
they are lost in the vast and uncultivated regions of the Bolson de 
Mapimi, whose elevation above the sea is still 3,800 feet, accord- 
ing to the measurement of Dr. Wislizenius. 


RIVERS — LAKES — INDIANS — DIVISIONS. 335 


Seventeen rivers and streams flow through the territory of this 
State. The Rio Bravo, or Rio Grande del Norte; the Rio Con- 
chas; Florida; Chihuahua; Tonachi; Llanos; Casas Grandes ; 
San Buenaventura; Carmen; Santa Isabel; Pasesiochi; Mulatos ; 
Chiapas; Parral; San Pedro; Batopilas; and Rio Grande de 
Bavispe. The lakes or lagunes are those of San Martin; Guzman; 
Patos, or Candelaria; Encinillas; and Castilla. The river Nasas, 
which rises in Durango debouches in the Lake of Cayman, in the 
Bolson de Mapimi. ‘The climate resembles that of the adjoining 
State of Durango. In the year 1834, the population, according to 
official statistics was 145,182; at present, it is estimated at from 
150,000 to 160,000, which number would give about 1.3 for each 
English square mile. This is probably the actual number of inhabi- 
tants within the State, exclusive of Indians and some wild dwellers 
among the mountains who were not comprised in the census of 
1833. Lafge numbers of aborigines occupy the lonelier portions 
of Chihuahua. ‘Tribes of Tepehuanés, Llanos, Acotlames, Coco- 
yames and a few remnants of the Aztecs are found within its bor- 
ders. In the Bolson de Mapimi, and on the borders of the moun- 
tain ranges of the Chanate, El Diabolo Puerco, and Pilares, swarm 
numbers of the Apaches Mescaléros and Farones, who are often en- 
gaged in war with the savage and robber tribes of Cumanches, 
whose constant inroads into the Mexican territory are a source of 
incessant annoyance and insecurity to the people of the frontier. In 
the ravines and valleys of the Sierra de los Mimbres, in the north- 
west of the State, the Apache Mimbrefios are found, while further 
south, in the wild and deep dells of Tararécua and Santa Sinforosa 
various bands of the Tarahuamares still pursue their hunter-life in 
perfect freedom. 

There is some doubt, in consequence of the conflict of authorities, 
as to the divisions of the State of Chihuahua. According to the 
Noticias Estadisticas of Senor Escudero, published in 1834, it was 
composed of four districts: Chihuahua, Hidalgo, Paso del Norte, 
and Guadalupe y Calvo,—in the first of which are the partidos of 
Aldama, Cosihuiriachi, Papigochi, and Jesus Maria de Rosales ;— 
in the second, the partidos of Allende and Jimenez ;—in the third, 
the partidos of Galeanas and Janos ;—and in the fourth, those of 
Batopilas and Balleza or Tepehuanes. According to an article pub- 
lished by the same writer in the fourth volume of the Museo Mexi- 
cano, in 1844, he apparently entertains the opinion that the same 
divisions still continue; but, if the authority of another and verv 
positive correspondent of the same work is to be relied on in refer- 


336 CLIMATE — PRODUCTIONS —CATTLE ESTATES. 


ence to the last mentioned period, Chihuahua was divided into the 
partidos of Aldama, Allende, Balleza, Batopilas, Concepcion, Cosi- 
huiriachi, Galeana, Hidalgo, Jimenez, Paso, and Rosales, formerly 
Tapacolmes. 

Nature has endowed Chihuahua with a pleasant and temperate 
climate and a fertile soil, which 1s said by those who are best ac- 
quainted with the State to be capable of producing abundantly, if 
the county is ever freed from savage inroads and filled with an in- 
dustrious population of agriculturists. The forests, the streams, the 
valleys and the plains, all yield their tributes of valuable articles of 
trade. Vast herds of cattle are fed upon the large haciendas de 
ganado; and the mountains are veined with the precious deposits 
which form the wealth of so many other Mexican States. The 
prompt settlement of the frontier, and the security of its inhabitants 
against the Indians, under the protection of armed forces by the con- 
terminous Republics, seem to be all that is requisite for the develop- 
_ ment of the fine natural resources of this hitherto neglected State. 

Field and garden cultivation is not much attended to by the pre- 
sent inhabitants ; but wherever farming operations are carried on in 
suitable spots, corn, wheat, barley, frijoles, and all the finest fruits, 
plants and vegetables, are found to repay bountifully the husband- 
man’s labor. Even indigo and cotton are found growing wild in 
some of the districts, notwithstanding the proximity of the mountain 
region, and the bleaker exposure of the soil. 

At El Paso del Norte, the right bank of the Rio Grande, is cov- 
ered for a distance of seven leagues with excellent vineyards, whose 
capital fruit produces an abundance of wine, which is greedily pur- 
chased in the markets of the adjacent States. In the neighborhood 
of Aldama, Allende, and of many other towns, the grape is also 
successfully cultivated, and the liquor produced is highly esteemed 
by competent judges. But the chief sources of the present pros- 
perity of Chihuahua are its mines and cattle. The best data in our 
possession assign to this State 56 large estates, upon all of which 
about 70,000 horses, 190,000 horned cattle, and 550,000 head of 
sheep, swine and goats are constantly fed. The silver, gold and 
copper mines have been in former years exceedingly productive, and 
even in 1844, the mint of Chihuahua, struck $61,632 in gold, and 
290,000 in silver. In 1814, the comage of the same institution 
reached the sum of $1,818,604 in silver, after which period it ceased 
operating until 1832; but since then its annual emission has never 
exceeded $544,244 in coins of both the precious metals. Gold was 
first struck at this mint in 1841, and in 1842 it sent into circulation 


MINT —MINES—PRINCIPAL TOWNS — CHIHUAHUA. 3a7 


$164,744, smce which its issue has sensibly decreased. The best 
copper mines at present known, are those of Santa Rita, near the 
union of the Rio Florida with the Rio Conchas. Veins of iron, cin- 
nabar, lead, sulphur, coal, and nitre have been found and explored ; 
but owing to the disturbed and insecure condition of the State, are 
altogether abandoned. 

The chief mining districts and mineral deposits are at Allende or 
San Bartolomé; Santa Barbara; Chihuahua; Cosihuiriachi; Santa 
Eulalia; Jesus Maria; Loreto; Moris; Mulatos; Minas Nuevas; 
Parral; San Pedro; El Refugio; Santa Rita; Sierra Rica; Bato- 
pilas; Urique y Ximenes, or as it is at present called, Guajuquilla. 
A considerable portion of the product of these mines may have been 
extracted from the Mexican Republic, before they were coined, by 
the inland trade with the United States, which has been carried on 
extensively for many years. The gold dust, especially, both of 
Chihuahua and New Mexico, has formed the principal return for 
American merchandize ; and thus the diminution of the Chihuahuan 
coinage may be partially accounted for. Nevertheless we are in- 
formed by the best authorities, as well as by the statistics of the 
mint, that the mines of this State have been negligently wrought for 
some years past by the unsettled inhabitants of the frontier. 

The chief towns in the State are the capital, Chihuahua, situated 
4,640 feet above the level of the sea, in 28° 38! north latitude and 
106° 30/ west longitude from Greenwich, containing a population 
of from 12,000 to 15,000. It lies in a beautiful valley opening to- 
wards the north, and hemmed in, on the other sides, by the arms of 
the Sierra Madre. The city is regularly built, on wide, clean 
streets, with many handsome and convenient houses, plentifully 
supplied with water, which is brought to the town by an aqueduct 
extending 6,533 varas. The plaza, or public square, is quite impo- 
sing. Its spacious area is adorned with a fountain and walks, 
with benches and pillars of white porphyry. Three sides of this 
square are occupied with public edifices and stores, while on the 
fourth is the cathedral. 

The other towns are San Pedro de Batopilas, a mining post on 
the western slope of the Cordillera, in a deep dell; — San José del 
Parral, at the eastern foot of the Sierra Madre on the southern limit 
of Chihuahua, about eighty leagues east of Batopilas, containing 
about 5,000 inhabitants; Valle de San Bartolomé, on the road from 
Chihuahua to Durango; Allende, with 11,000 inhabitants; Santa 
Rosa de Cosihuiriachi, with 3,000; and various other villages and 
Presidios of lesser note. . 


338 EL PASO DEL NORTE— MILITARY IMPORTANCE. 


One of the most important towns in the State of Chihuahua, since 
the annexation of a part of Mexico to the United States by the 
treaty of 1848, is E] Paso del Norte. According to the observations 
of Dr. Wislizenius, it lies in 31° 45’ 50” north latitude, 3,814 feet 
above the level of the sea, on the Rio Grande, distant about 340 
miles from Santa Fé, and about 240 from the town of Chihuahua. 
The Rio Grande or Rio del Norte, having escaped the mountain 
pass, runs here in an open fertile field, at the beginning of which El] 
Paso is situated. The town is principally built on the right bank 
of the river while a few houses are on the left. Stretched out 
along the stream for many miles, all its dwellings are surrounded and 
embosomed in groves, gardens, orchards, vineyards and cultivated 
fields as far as the eye can reach. ‘The position of this town is an 
important one, inasmuch as the road by it is the only practicable 
one for wagons leading from Santa Fé to Chihuahua. A circuitous 
road might, in case of necessity, be made from the right bank of 
the river, on the northern end of the Jornado del Muerto, to the cop- 
per mines near the sources of the Gila, and thence by Carmen to 
Chihuahua; but it is by far more mountainous, winding and diffi- 
cult than the direct road through El Paso which has long been the 
only highway between New Mexico and Chihuahua. Besides these 
advantages of commercial intercourse, the point is deemed of the 
greatest value as a military post, in which a well provided garrison 
could hold out against a ten-fold stronger force! The population 
of the town proper, and of the line of settlements extending about 
twenty miles down the river is estimated at from ten to twelve 
thousand. 

Besides these important considerations, the valley of El Paso 
is probably the most fertile country along the river. In addition to 
maize and wheat the inhabitants raise a large quantity of fruits, such 
as apples, pears, figs, quinces, peaches, &c., but especially an ex- 
cellent grape from which the celebrated E] Paso wine is prepared, 
and a liquor is made called by the Americans “‘ Pass Whiskey.” 
The grape which is so extensively cultivated is of Spanish origin ; 
it is blue, very rich and juicy, and produces a strong, sweet, south- 
ern, straw-colored wine. For want of barrels, the natives preserve 
the liquor in earthern jars or in ox skins. The wine has a strong 
body, and when mellowed by age, has the flavor of Malaga. Be- 
sides the blue grape, a white species is also raised, having the flavor 
of the Muscadine, but it is believed that it is not used for wine. 


1 Dr, Wislizenius’s Memoir, &&c., &c., 1348, p, 41. 


EL PASO WINE, ETC.—ANTIQUITIES—INDIAN RAVAGES. 339 


The mode of cultivating the vineyards in this region is simple. 
The vines are covered in winter with earth, are kept clear from 
weeds, hoed and pruned at the proper season, but they are not at- 
tached to stakes or espaliers. The soil and climate are so genial 
that less labor is required than in other countries ; but a great deal 
of the fertility of the beautiful valley must be ascribed to the in- 
genious system of irrigation, which is produced by a dam con- 
structed in the river above El Paso, which turns a large body of 
water into a canal. This canal, spreading into numerous branches 
and re-uniting again, provides all the cultivated land with a suffi- 
ciency of moisture. 

Some remains of antiguity are found in the north-western part of 
the State, lying near the village and creek of the Casas Grandes, 
between Janos and Galeana. Ruins of large houses, known as 
‘‘ Casas Grandes”’ in the language of the country, exist in this 
neighborhood, built of sun-dried bricks, or adobes, and squared 
timber. ‘They are three stories high with a gallery of wood and 
stairway from the exterior, with very small rooms and narrow doors 
in the upper stories but without means of entrance in the lower. 
Water was brought to the spot from a neighboring spring by a 
canal; and a watch-tower, commanding an extensive prospect, 
stands on an elevation two leagues south-west of it. A series of 
mounds, containing earthen vessels, weapons, instruments of stone, 
and fragments of white, blue and violet colored pottery, extends 
along the banks of the Casas Grandes and Janos creeks, 


The State of Chihuahua has suffered and still suffers greatly and 
constantly from the incursions of the barbarians who ravage her 
frontiers and descend boldly into the very heart of the settlements. 
The uncertainty of life and insecurity of property have, of course, 
prevented the development of a region so valuable for its mineral 
and agricultural resources ; nor is it likely that any sensible progress 
will be made until the four warring tribes of Gulefios, Mesclaros, 
Mimbrefios and Lipanes, are destroyed by the advance of the eivi- 
lized nations from the north as well as from the south. 

A recent Mexican author, in describing the condition of Chihua- 
hua, declares that at ‘‘ present every hacienda must be converted into 
a castle of the middle ages, every shepherd into a soldier: — proprie- 
tors of estates enjoy no security of their possessions, and the com- 
mon people gather themselves into villages to escape from the ex- 
posed country in which they must become the victims of the blood- 
thirsty savages and robbers from the wilderness.” 


440 THE BOLSON DE MAPIMI. 


There is a singular geological formation in the northern part of 
Mexico, lying on the road between the cities of Chihuahua and Mon- 
terey, and extending northwardly from the towns and haciendas of 
Mapimi, San Juan, San Lorenzo and San Sebastian towards the 
Rio Grande, called the Bolson de Mapimi, or Pouch of Mapimi. 
Leaving Mapimi, the road continues about three miles to the eastern 
mountain chain, and then winding nearly two miles through a cafion, 
or gorge, it leads to a very open level valley, which is the com- 
mencement of the Bolson. ‘Towards the right of the road, east- 


wardly, at the distance of from three to five miles, a steep, high 


mountain chain of limestone, rises precipitously, while another 
chain towers up to the left, at the distance of about twelve miles. 
Both chains gradually diverge, but especially the eastern arm, which 
stretches north-eastwardly and then bends to the south-west, at an 
angle, leaving a deep cul de sac or depression in the middle from 
which the country has probably derived its name. All around is an 
immense chapparal plain, while in the distance the Rio Nasas runs 
towards the north into the immense basin, and forms the large Laguna 
de Tlagualila, usually set down on maps and mentioned in geographi- 
cal works as Lake Cayman. ‘The Nasas is said by Dr. Wislizenius 
to be the Nile of the Bolson. Coming about 150 leagues from the 
western part of Durango, from the Sianori mountains, it runs north- 
westwardly and northerly towards this Pouch, and the wide and 
level country along the river is yearly inundated by the floods, and 
owes its fertility to this circumstance. ‘The limits of the Bolson de 
Mapimi have never been clearly defined either geographically or 
politically for its immense wilderness has been neither fully explored 
or occupied in consequence of the danger of encountering the rob- 
ber hordes by whom its recesses are infested. ‘The northern portion 
is supposed to belong to the State of Chihuahua, and the southern 
to Durango. Nor are its general physical properties clearly known, 
though the common and perhaps erroneous impression in the coun- 
try is that it is a low, flat, swampy country and a mere desert. The 
two terminating points of Dr. Wislizenius’s transit through the 
Bolson are Mapimi, where he entered it, and El Paso, or a point 
between Paso and Parras, where he left it. At Mapimi, the eleva- 
tion above the sea was 4,487 feet; in the valley of the Nasas, at 
San Sebastian, 3,785; at San Lorenzo, 3,815; at San Juan, 3,775; 
and towards the eastern edge of the Bolson, at Hl Paso, 3,390, 
and at Parras, 4,987. We perceive, therefore, that the valley of 
of the Nasas, which may be called the vein and centre of the Bol- 
son has a mean elevation of 3,800 feet; and though from 500 to 


> ie 
. ¥ 


a: 
hs 


MODES OF TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORTATION—LITERA. 341 


1,000 feet lower than the surrounding county, it nevertheless occu- 
pies a considerable elevation above the sea. 

The soil in the Bolson is less sandy and of a better quality than 
in the higher country. Besides wheat and corn, a quantity of cot- 
ton is raised in the valley of the river, and wine has been success- 
fully tried. The climate is represented to be so mild, that the root 
of the cotton plant is seldom destroyed in winter, and thrives for 
many years. 

We have dwelt upon the character and qualities of this extraor- 
dinary depression among the mountain ridges of northern Mexico, 
because we believe that when it is finally explored, the savages ex- 
terminated, and the country opened to the advance of civilization, 
El Bolson de Mapimi may become one of the most important and 
perhaps fruitful basins among the temperate lands of Mexico. 


CONCLUSION. 


We have completed the proposed task of sketching the history 
and geography of Mexico, accompanied by notices of its social and 
political condition, and of the remains of antiquity sprinkled over 
its territory. We acknowledge the imperfection of the work, and 
its unsatisfactoriness even to ourselves. But we have diligently 
searched the best authorities that could be obtained at home and 
abroad, and, while we have omitted nothing that might be relied on 
for the purpose of displaying the physical and intellectual character 
of the country and people, we have endeavored to indicate clearly 
those historical antecedents and geographical peculiarities upon 
which the future progress or decline of the nation is to be founded. 

Perhaps no countries are more difficult for full and minute de- 
scription, in their present social state, than Mexico and the South 
American nations. Mexico, as we have seen, is a mountain coun- 
try, with very few navigable streams opening the interior to travel- 
lers, and with badly constructed roads, which were scarcely adequate 
for the most needful transportation required for the subsistence of 
the people. As soon as the way-farer left the coasts of the Gulf or 
of the Pacific he penetrated the glens of lofty mountains, or slowly 
toiled along the inclined plains of their precipitous sides. Wide 
levels opened in the interior, at considerable distances, but these 
were separated by ridges of the Cordillera which were, in fact, ram- 
parts capable of defending a warlike people almost without the aid 
of military improvement. Until within a few years, the back of a 


horse or of a mule; an old fashioned LireRa swung between two beasts 
2R 


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MULES — ARRIEROS — CONDUCTA—COACHES—wWAGONS. 9343 


of burthen, or an antiquated clumsy Mexican coach, were the only 
means of travelling. Of these, the litera, a species of palanquin in 


' which the traveller reclined at ease upon his mattress and cushions, 


a 


was by far the most comfortable, and the use of this convenient ve- 
hicle is still continued especially in the warmer parts of the country 
where exposure to the sun is dangerous, and into which the modern 
diligence or stage coach has not been introduced from the factories 
of the United States. In many portions of Mexico, where the 
transportation has been for centuries carried on by ArrrEros 
with their mules and jackasses, scarcely any thing of the original 
road remains, while the path that has been so long trodden by the 
single file Atajos of these useful beasts has been worn so deeply by 
their feet in the yielding soil or rock, that the animals themselves 
are often concealed by the steep sides of the gully. Thousands of 
sturdy Mexicans have for years been employed as Arrreros in this 
business of mule-carriage. The ‘‘ Conpucta”’ is recognized as one 
of the traditionary, time honored, and almost constitutional institu- 
tions of the Republic, and it may easily be conceived that with so 
powerful a body of honest, industrious men opposed to any new 
scheme of transportation, it will require a long time for the enlight- 
ened requirements of extended commerce to displace it. The fidelity 
of this class has been already, elsewhere, alluded to; and whilst it is 
personally reliable and responsible, its members are scarcely ever 
attacked by the bands of robbers infesting the recesses of the moun- 
tains, and laying in wait for less numerous, resolute or organized 
way-farers. Millions were, and still are, often entrusted to them 
with perfect confidence by the government and the people. 
Nevertheless, within the last fifteen years the growing manufac- 
tures of Mexico required a stouter means of transportation of heavy 
machinery than the limbs of a mule, and the consequence was that 
intelligent foreigners availing themselves of this want in the first 
instance, gradually introduced heavy wagons like those of the Euro- 
pean roulage system, into which, by degrees, they forced a large por- 
tion of the bulky commercial freight which was to be borne from the 
coast into the interior. Simultaneously with this encroachment on the 
mule, the arriero, and the litera, appeared the American stage coach, 
built in New York; and together with the coach and its spirited 
horses, came the ‘‘ Yankee driver,”’ whose accommodating and daring 
character soon made him a favorite with those whose trade he in some 


measure injured, though it did not serve to protect him or his pas- 


sengers from the attacks of robbers. The line of diligences or 
coaches established from Vera Cruz to the capital, passing through 


344 MEXICAN HABIT OF HOME-STAYING. 


Jalapa, Peroté and Puebla, was gradually extended northwards 
from the capital through the principal mining and commercial cities 
of the north, and thus the means of swift and comfortable travel was 
at length, though only recently, supplied to a small part of Mexico. 

The danger of robbers, the wretchedness of the roads, the dis- 
comfort of inns and the old fashioned Mexican habit of staying at 
home, have, therefore, hitherto prevented the masses of the people 
from going abroad. A journey of two or three hundred miles, for 
any purpose but business or emigration, is still regarded as an im- 
portant undertaking. When families depart on such an expedition 
the preparations embrace almost every comfort and luxury required 
_at home, except a cow anda piano. Until very lately nothing but 
shelter or the commonest food was to be had at the miserable mesones 
or taverns along the roads. In most of the less frequented regions 
this is still the case. It was necessary therefore that travellers 
should be accompanied by a full complement of servants, that they 
should carry with them an ample supply of bedding and table fur- 
niture, that their long and numerous train should be fully armed and 
equipped to fight its way if necessary, and that they should be con- 
tent to halt frequently, journey slowly, and linger on the road. In- 
conveniences like these necessarily localized and confined all classes 
of Mexicans except the very rich or those whose business impera- 
tively required them to encounter a life of expensive adventure. 
Nor was Mexico a country of watering places and sea-side fashion, 
in which it was customary, at certain seasons, for all whose means 
permitted, to fly from the city to the fields or the shore for recreation 
and health. Invalids, occasionally, under the stringent orders of © 
physicians, crawled to the warm baths or mineral waters which are 
abundant in a volcanic country, but they were not followed by the 
idle crowds who frequent similar places in Europe and the United 
States. Tens of thousands are now living in the city of Mexico 
who have not even crossed the lake to Tezcoco; while the fashion- 
able or the wealthy are perfectly satisfied if they make an annual 
peregrination in the month of May of twelve miles to San Agustin 
de las Cuevas, where they spend three days of frivolity, gambling, 
cockfighting, and dancing. ‘The journeys of the rest of the year are 
confined, as they are elsewhere in the Republic, to an evening drive 
or ride on the Passeos and Alameda, or a more extended excursion 
of a few miles to Tacubaya or San Angel. It was not the usage, 
in the early days of Mexico or during the viceroyal government, to 
travel for pleasure in a country conquered from the Indians, and 
still ravaged by them or made insecure. The custom of the Span- 


WANT OF EXPLORATION— MODERN ADVANCEMENT. 345 


iard has become a habit of the Mexican. It may, in truth, be said 
that the spirit of travel does not rule in Mexico, and that her people 
are stationary. Railways do not traverse her valleys and plains, nor 
do electric telegraphs convey the thoughts of her people thousands 
of-miles in a minute. Even the mail system is expensive, incom- 
plete and inadequate. Neither a steamboat nora locomotive belongs 
to the nation. 

In addition to all these habitual, accidental and geographical dif- 
ficulties of travelling over and exploring this mountain country, its 
constant revolutionary state since the rebellion against Spain has 
tended to retain people as much as possible either in the neighbor- 
hood of their families or of their busmess and interests. Nor has 
‘scientific education been extended sufficiently to form a large or en- 
thusiastic class of engineers who would have traversed the land and 
combined the results of their observations. A few scattered students 
have, indeed, published detached essays upon portions of the Repub- 
lic, and the Comision de Estadistica Militar is now engaged in 
gathering statistical and geographical reports of the several States. 
But the elements from which these bulletins are constructed do not 
seem to be collected upon any uniform system of very responsible 
scientific inquiry. The local authorities from whom much of the 
numerical information is necessarily obtained, if they are connected 
with any of the branches of taxation, or revenue collection, are gen- 
erally unreliable or corrupt, for, in consequence of the system of 
peculation which has been carried on during the late disorganized 
epoch of Mexican history, it was their interest to conceal rather 
than to disclose facts, especially when those facts manifested the 
great value or production of the region over which they presided. 

Nevertheless, amid all these sad excuses for insufficiency or in- 
accuracy, we may congratulate Mexico upon the effort which she is 
now making to redeem herself from the past opprobrium. The war 
with the United States has taught her many things, social as well 
as political. Education is beginning to be more valued and ex- 
tended. Periodicals and newspapers are more freely published and 
diffused. Their leading articles and scientific communications show 
that new classes of writers as well as politicians are coming readily 
into the field in a period of assured peace and order. These two 
elements of national. progress will enable. Mexico to become ac- 
quainted with herself, and when her students disclose the result of 
their discoveries, we shall be glad to see our imperfect but honest 
efforts superseded by a work that will confer honor upon Spanish 
science and literature. 


346 PROFILE—MEXICO TO SANTA FE——SANTA F& TO THE GULF. 


APPENDEX: NO; 


e 


Ts 


PROFILE OF THE PLATEAU—MEXICO TO SANTA FE—SANTA FE TO THE GULF. 


In order to afford the geographical student an idea of the central configuration 
of Mexico, we annex the following tables of the lines of levelling made by Baron 
Humboldt, Dr. Wislizenius, Oteiza, and Burkart, northwardly from the city of 
Mexico to Santa Fé; and eastwardly from Santa Fé to Reynosa near the Gulf of 
Mexico. From the first of these we learn that the plateaw which forms the broad 
crest of the Mexican Cordillera by no means sinks down to an inconsiderable height 
as was long supposed to be the case but that it maintains, throughout, its majestic 
elevation. 

Ist. Elevation above the sea from the 


city of Mexico to Santa Fé. 
Mexico 7,469 ft. above sea. 


2d. From Santa Fé in New Mexico 
to Reynosa on the Rio Grande. 
Santa Fé 7,047 ft. above sea 


Tula G5 939) hin, One ee 3 miles N. of Albur- 
San Juan del Rio Layee A at i ca querque near the» 4,813 « « «6 
Querétaro 6,362 * ss oe Rio Grande 
Celaya 6, Oise Jornado del Muerto 4,452  ‘“ « 
Salamanca 5 161 So > 66 aes Brazito 3,918 «© «6 ts 
Guanajuato Tice oy een ees Para Upon crossing of the P 
Silao Ope hs c lass Rio Grande a eg 
Villa de Leon Orla ee ie ater Paso del Norte. DEO LO) Oe eee a ee 
Lagos GES ADigs bean: pure 8 S. of Rio Carmen PO A We at ae 
Aguas Calientes Gea: san fe S. of Gallego ey Make ee 
San Luis Potosi GHOD ik! # ce 68-5 on 68 Rio Sacramento AsDAQ. 65) ip SF a shes 
Zacatécas 8,038 «© «6 ke Chihuahua 4,636 <> 6 as 
Fresnillo ieoaa os os Aguachi 5,952 << rT: a 
Durango GiBAS af 3 66 oc 6 Cosihuiriachi G BIS. €* wi eke 
Parras AOS pecan aces wee Bachimba 3,956 §§ «ese 
Saltillo, eA: “6 “ os EF] Saucillo 3,955 *« BO.) Ge 
Fl Bolsende Mapimi 3,785 «© Cadena 5,056 6 «F 
Chihuahua 7B Gs te ec en an Mapimi A487 © et 
Cosihuiriachi Gy eee akan Pee El. Bolson ‘de Mapimi 13,765 ,“°) <4" 
Paso del Norte on 3.810 «6% «  «e Parras 4,985 «66 
the Rio Grande Z La Encantada 6,104 «© 
Santa Fé in aan PQ Ay ce Meee mee Saltillo 5,240 «ee 
Mexico ? Rinconada Sed 60 Me ae 
Monterey 1 Goi Res Peet Cras 
Marin Lj Sba Es Feet ee 
Ceralvo P0065! 6 
Mier 4I7 «6 66 gs 
Camargo 499 66 66 66 
1 Reynosa 104 «© 66 


‘If we consider,’’—says Humboldt in his Views of Nature,—‘‘ that in the north 
and south direction the difference of latitude between Santa Fé and the city of Mexico 
is more than sixteen degrees, and that consequently the distance in a meridian direc- 
tion, independently of curvatures on the road is more than 960 miles, we are led to 
ask whether in the whole world, there exists any similar formation of equal extent 
and height, between 5,000 and 7,500 feet, above the level of the sea. Four-wheeled 
wagons can travel from Mexico to Santa Fé. The plateau whose levelling is here 
described is formed solely by the broad undulating flattened crest of the chain of the 
Mexican Andes ; it is not the swelling of a valley between two mountain chains, 
such as the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of 
California in the Northern Hemisphere ; or the elevated plateau of the Lake of Ti- 
ticaca, between the eastern and northern chains of Bolivia ; or the plateau of Thibet 
between the Himilaya and Quenlun, in the Southern Hemisphere.’’—Page 209, 
Humb. Views of Nature. 


1See Humboldt’s Views of Nature, London edition, 1850, p. 208, and Dr. Wislizenius’s Profiles of 
the country in his Memoir on New Mezico, &c., &c. 


‘ 


MEXICAN COINS, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. BAG 


ANP Pei NAD xe NO. 2. 


MEXICAN COINS. 


1 onza—gold, = 16 dollars. 

1 peso—silver, = 1 dollar. 

1 real—silver, = 125 cents. 

1 medio real — silver, = 6; cents. 
I quartillo — copper, = 33 cents. 
1 tlaco — copper, = 17° cents. 


MEASURES. 
1 foot = 0.928 feet English. 
1 vara (three feet Mexican) = 2.784 feet English = 2 feet 9.3141 inches English, 
1 legua (26.63 to 1 meridian) = 5000 varas = 2.636 miles English. 


WEIGHTS. 
1 onza — (8 ochavos) = 1 ounce. 
1 marco — (8 onzas) = 3 pound. 
1 hbra — (2 marcos) = 1 pound. 
1 arroba — (25 libras) = 25 pounds. 
1 quintal — (4 arrobas) = 100 pounds. 
1 carga — (3 quintals) = 300 pounds. 
1 fanega— (140 pounds) = 2 bushels nearly. 
1 almuer — (almuerza) = 7’g of a fanega. 
1 frasco = 5 pints nearly.! 


TABLE OF LAND. MEASURES ADOPTED IN THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 


Names of Measures ee eee 
Sitio de ganado mayor, Square 5,000 5,000 25,000,000 41.023 
Criadero de ganado mayor, Square 2,500 2,500 6,250,000 10.255 
Sitio de ganado menor, Square 3,3334 3,3334 11,111,1113 18.232 
Criadero de ganado menor, Square 1,6662 1,6662 2,777, 711$ 4,558 
e , Right angled 

Cuballeria de tierra Soe 1,104 552 609,408 1 
Media cabelleria, Square 552 552 304,704 5 
Cuarto caballeria or su-? Right angled ; 

erte de tierra, parallelogram goee ie 152,352 2 
Fanega de sembradura? Right angled 

” de maiz, parallelogram vy 184 56,784 Tz 
Solar para casa, Square 50 50 2,900 0.004 
Fundo legal para pueblos, Square 1,200 1,200 1,440,000 2.036 


The Mexican Vara is the unit of all measure of length, the pattern and size of 
which are taken from the Castilian Vara of the Mark of Burgos, which is the legal vara 
used in the Republic. Fifty Mexican varas make a measure called Cordel, used in 
measuring lands. 

The legal league contains 900 cordels, or 5000 varas. The league is divided into 
halves and quarters — this being the only division made of it. Anciently the Mexi- 
can league was divided into three miles, the mile into a thousand paces of Solomon, 
and one of these paces into five-thirds of a Mexican vara — consequently the league 
had 3000 paces of Solomon. This division is recognized in legal affairs, though it 
has been long in disuse. The mark was equivalent to two varas and seven-eighths, 
that is, 8 marks contained 22 varas, and was used in land measure. 

See Appendix No. 9 to Captain Halleck’s Report on Californian affairs, — pages 
119 and 145 of Executive Document No. 17, 31st Congress, Ist Session. 


1 See Dr. Wislizenius’s Memoir, &c., &c. p. 141. 
2k 


BOOK VI. 


THE TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO 


AND 


THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, 


AS PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA. 


28 


BOOK VI. 
THE TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO 
AND 
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA; 


AS PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA. 


THE TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO. 


EXPLORATION OF THE FAR WEST——LONG, NICOLLET, FREMONT —— 
SANTA FE TRADE — FIRST ADVENTURERS — CARAVANS — NEW 
MEXICO ERECTED BY CONGRESS INTO A TERRITORY—GEOLOGI- 
CAL STRUCTURE OF NEW MEXICO—THE RIO GRANDE — ITS 
VALUE— SOIL — PRODUCTS — IRRIGATION — CATTLE — INDIANS 
—MINES — GOLD— SILVER— COPPER— IRON — GYPSUM — SALT 
—CLIMATE—PUEBLO INDIANS—WILD INDIANS ENUMERATED— 
NUMBER OF PUEBLO INDIANS—CENSUS—PROXIMATE PRESENT 
POPULATION — CHARACTER OF PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT — 
SANTA FE—ALBURQUERQUE—VALLEY OF TOAS—STATISTICS OF 
SANTA FE TRADE, ETC.—ITINERARY FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH 


TO SANTA FE AND EL PASO. 


Ir was not until a few years ago that the people of the United 
States generally began to turn their attention to the development of 
those vast regions lying in the far west and along the shores of the 
Pacific Ocean. An occasional adventurer or foreign traveller re- 
turned from the Rocky Mountains after a pleasant but wild sojourn 
among the trappers and Indians, and told his romantic stories to ea- 
ger listeners. At length, Major Long penetrated their recesses, — 
Nicollet sought the sources of the Mississippi, — and Frémont not 
only pushed his way beyond them, but traversed the majestic snow- 
buried summits of the Sierra Nevada and explored the genial 
lands lying at their feet in California. 

Meanwhile a trade had grown up, midway from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, between our western cities and the northern States of 
Mexico. But this, too, was an intercourse of mingled adventure, 
romance and commerce. Its objects and results were not generally 
known or recounted in the“gazettes. Its hardy pursuers who were 


302 SANTA FE TRADE — EIRST ADVENTURERS—CARAVANS. 


equally ready for a bargain or a battle, did not commonly amuse 
themselves either with correspondence or authorship, and accord- 
ingly, “The Santa Fé Trade” remained as much a matter of mys- 
tery to the mass of Americans as the marches of those great cara- 
vans which in the east annually traverse the desert towards the 
tomb of the Prophet. 


The origin of this trade is not definitely known. A certain James 
Pursely, who wandered in the lonely regions west of the Missis- 
sippi about the year 1805, and learned something respecting the 
settlements in New Mexico from Indians near the sources of 
the Platte river, is supposed to have been the first American who 
visited Santa Fé in this direction; though, in the previous year, a 
French Creole, named La Lande, had been despatched by Mr. 
Morrison, a merchant of Kaskaskia, with orders if possible to reach 
Santa Fé. It is known that this person arrived at his destination, 
but was so delighted with the country and so well entertained, that 
he never returned, and probably established himself in successful 
trade upon the capital of his confiding employer. 

From this period, and after the Southern Expedition of Captain 
Pike, very little is heard of this distant region until a caravan was 
fitted out under the auspices of Messrs. Knight, Beard, Chambers, 
and about eight other persons, in the year 1812. They reached 
Santa Fé in an unlucky hour. The revolutionary movements 
which had been disturbing Mexico were just then checked by the 
successes of the royalists, and the traders were siezed as spies, 
their goods confiscated, and themselves confined in the prisons of 
Chihuahua for nine years, when McKnight and his comrades were 
finally released. As soon as these luckless adventurers reached 
the United States, their return, their narratives and the probable 
settlement of the Mexican revolution by the successes of Iturbidé, 
induced others to fit out expeditions at once. A merchant of Ohio, 
named Glenn, and Captain Becknell, of Missouri, set out forthwith ; 
and in 1824, about eighty traders, accompanied by several intel- 
ligent and cultivated Missourians, departed not only with pack- 
mules, which had hitherto served for the transportation of goods, 
but with twenty-five wheeled vehicles of which one or two were 
stout road wagons, the whole conveying a freight of near thirty 
thousand dollars in merchandise. ‘The caravan crossed the desert- 
plains after an eventful journey; and some years after—as the 
early adventurers had experienced no serious molestations from the 
Indians, —a wealthier class of traders, availed themselves of the 


NEW MEXICO ERECTED BY CONGRESS INTO A TERRITORY. 353 


opened commerce of the Prairies and finally established the annual 
caravans which within recent years have departed from the neigh- 
borhood of Independence, laden with most valuable freights for 
the markets of Santa Fé, Chihuahua, and even the distant Fair of 
San Juan de los Lagos. 

In time, however, the caravans, the period of their passage, and 
their value, became known to the savages through whose lonely 
territory they passed, and so many cruel attacks were made, that the 
United States resolved to protect them and established military con- 
voys for the most dangerous part of the route. But these were not 
always of sufficient size, nor did they cover the road adequately ; 
for the escort which accompanied the caravan of 1829, and another 
composed of sixty dragoons under Captain Wharton in 1834, consti- 
tuted the only government protection until the year 1°43, when large 
escorts under Captain Cook attended two different caravans as far as 
the Arkansas river. Since that period, the war has slightly interfered 
with the trade; but the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, 
having given New Mexico to the United States, and a territorial 
government having been formed for it during the first session of 
the thirty-first Congress, a new and progressive era is about to 
dawn upon the whole of the hitherto lonely waste between the 
western settlements of Texas and the shores of the Pacific. 

By an act approved on the 9th of September, 1850, it is pro- 
vided: ‘‘That all that portion of the territory of the United States 
bounded as follows: beginning at a point in the Colorado river, 
where the boundary line with the Republic of Mexico crosses the 
same; thence eastwardly with the said boundary line to the Rio 
Grande; thence following the main channel of said river to the 
parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence east 
with said degree to its intersection with the one hundred and third 
degree of longitude west of Greenwich; thence north with said 
degree of longitude to the parallel of the thirty-eighth degree of north 
latitude; thence west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra 
Madre; thence south with the crest of said mountains to the thirty- 
seventh parallel of north latitude; thence west with said parallel to 
its intersection with the boundary line of the State of California ; 
thence with said boundary line to the place of beginning,—be and 
the same is hereby erected into a temporary government, by the 
name of the ‘’eRrirory or New Mexico: Provided, That nothing 
in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the Government 
of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more 
Territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall 


354 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF NEW MEXICO. 


deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion thereof 
to any other Territory or State: nd provided, further, That, 
when admitted as a State, the said Territory, or any portion of the 
same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as 
their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.” 

Under the old Spanish and Mexican governments, the boundaries 
of New Mexico were exceedingly indefinite; but this act forever 
fixes the territorial limits, and also settles the long vexed question 
of the boundary of Texas. 

““ New Mexico,”’ says Dr. Wislizenius, in his excellent memoir 
on the northern part of the Republic; ‘‘is a very mountainous 
country, with a large valley in the middle, running from north to 
south, and formed by the Rio del Norte or Rio Grande. The valley 
is generally about twenty miles wide, and bordered on the east and 
west by mountain chains, continuations of the Rocky Mountains, 
which have received different names, such as La Sierra Blanca; 
Los Organos, and Oscura, on the eastern side of the stream; and 
the Sierra de las Grullas, De Acha, and De los Mimbres, towards 
the west. The height of these mountains south of Santa Fé, may be 
averaged between six and eight thousand feet, while near Santa Fé 
and the more northern regions, some snow covered peaks are seen 
. rising probably ten or twelve thousand feet above the sea. The 
mountains are principally composed of igneous rocks, as granite, 
sienite, diorite, and basalt. On the higher mountains excellent pine 
timber grows; on the lower, cedars and sometimes oak, and in the 
valley of the Rio Grande, principally mezquite. 

The main artery of New Mexico is the Rio del Norte or Rio 
Grande, the longest and largest river ever possessed by Mexico. 
Its head waters were explored in 1807 by Captain Pike, between 
37° and 38° north latitude ; but its highest sources are supposed to 
be about two degrees further north in the Rocky Mountains, near 
the head waters of the Arkansas and the Rio Grande or Colorado of 
the west. Following a general southern direction, it runs through 
New Mexico — where its principal affluent is the Rio Chamas from 
the west —and then winds its way in a south-eastern direction, 
through the States of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Texas, 
to the Gulf of Mexico in 25° 56! north latitude. Its tributaries in 
in the latter States are the Pecos, from the north; the Conchos, 
Salado, Alamo, and San Juan, from the south. The whole course 
of the river, in a straight line, would be near twelve hundred miles; 
but from the meandering of its lower half, it runs at least about two 
thousand miles from the region of eternal snow to the almost tropical 


THE RIO GRANDE—ITS VALUE—SOIL—pRODUCTS. 355 


climate of the Gulf. The elevation of the stream above the sea at 
Alburquerque, in New Mexico, is about forty-eight hundred feet; at 
El Paso del Norte, about thirty-eight hundred; and at Reynosa, 
—between three and four hundred miles from its mouth—about one 
hundred and seventy feet. The fall of its water between Alburquer- 
que and El Paso, appears to be from two to three feet ina mile, and 
below Reynosa, one foot in two miles. ‘This fall of the river is sel- 
dom used as motive power, except for some flour mills, which are 
oftener worked by mules than water. The principal advantage at 
present derived from it is for agriculture, by a well conducted system 
of irrigation. As to its navigation, it is very doubtful if even 
canoes could be used in ew Mexico, except, perhaps, during May 
and June, when the stream, from the melting of the snow in the 
mountains, is at its highest stage. It is entirely too shallow and in- 
terrupted by too many sand bars, to promise any thing for transpor- 
tation; yet, on the southern portion, the recent exploration by 
Captain Sterling, in the United States steamer Major Brown, has 
proved that steamboats may ascend for-a distance of seven hundred 
miles between the Gulf and Laredo. ‘This steamer, however, did 
not draw over two feet of water, but the explorers are of opinion that 
by spending one hundred thousand dollars in a proper improvement 
of the Rio Grande above the town of Mier, boats drawing four feet 
could readily ply between the mouth of the river and Laredo. 

The soil in the valley of the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, is 
generally sandy and appears to be poor; yet, by irigation, it is 
made to produce abundant crops. Though agriculture has been 
hitherto carried on in a very primitive way, either with the hoe 
alone, or with a very rough plough made entirely of wood, never- 
theless the inhabitants raise large quantities of the staple productions 
—such as Indian corn, wheat, beans, onions, red peppers, and some 
fruits. The most fertile part of the valley, begins below Santa Fé 
along the river, and is called the ‘ Rio abajo,’ or Country down the 
Stream. In that region it is not uncommon to gather two annual 
harvests. The general dryness of the climate and aridity of the 
soil will always confine agriculture to the valleys of water courses, 
which rarely contain running water during the whole year. But on 
several occasions it was remarked, in the high table land from 
Santa Fé south, that at a certain depth layers of clay are found, that 
may form reservoirs for the sunken water courses from the eastern 
and western mountain chain, and consequently, by the improved 
method of boring, or by Artesian wells, they might easily be made 
to yield their water to the surface. If experiments to that effect 


356 IRRIGATION — CATTLE — INDIANS — MINES. 


should prove successful, the progress of agriculture in New Mexico 
would be more rapid, and, even many of the dreaded ‘Jornadas’ 
might be changed from waterless deserts into cultivated plains. 

The present system of irrigation is effected by daming the 
' streams, and throwing the water into larger and smaller ditches or 
acequias surrounding and intersecting the whole cultivated land. 
The inhabitants of towns and villages locate their farms together, 
and allot to each the use of a part of the water at certain definite 
periods. ‘These common fields are generally left without fences, for 
the grazing cattle are always guarded by vaqueros or herdsmen. 
The finest cultivated fields are generally seen on the haciendas, or 
large estates belonging to the rich proprietors. These hactendas are 
a remnant of the old Spanish system by which large tracts, with the 
appurtenances of Indian inhabitants or serfs were granted by the 
crown to its vassals. The great number of human beings attached 
to such estates, are, in fact, nothing more than slaves; they receive 
from their masters only food, lodging, and raiment, or, perhaps a 
mere nominal pay, and are kept constantly in debt and dependance 
on their landlords; so that if ancient custom and natural indolence 
did not compel them to remain permanently with their hereditary 
masters, the enforcement of Mexican laws against debtors would be 
sufficient to prolong their servitude from generation to generation. 

Besides agriculture, the New Mexicans pay a great deal of at- 
tention to the raising of cattle. Their stock is all of a small size, 
raised from unimproved or exhausted breeds; but it increases ra- 
pidly, and as no stable feeding is needed in winter, it exacts but 
little care from its owners. ‘There are large tracts of land in New 
Mexico, either too mountainous or too distant from water to be cul- 
tivated, which, nevertheless, afford excellent pasturage for innumer- 
able herds during the whole year; but, unfortunately, here as well 
as in the State of Chihuahua, cattle raising has been crippled by the 
incursions of hostile Indians, who consider themselves ‘secret part- 
ners’ in the business, and annually carry off their share from the 
unprotected vaqueros. 

A third much neglected branch of industry in New Mexico, is 
that of mining. Numerous deserted mining places in this region 
prove that it was pursued with much greater zeal in Spanish times 
than at present. This may be accounted for by the actual want 
of capital and knowledge of mining, but, especially, by the unsettled 
state of the country and the arbitrary conduct of its rulers. The 
mountainous parts of New Mexico are considered extremely rich in 
gold, copper, iron, and some silver. Gold seems to be found to a 


GOLD — SILVER— COPPER—— IRON — GYPSUM — SALT. 357 


large extent in all the mountains near Santa Fé; south of it, ata 
distance of about one hundred miles as far as “ Gran Quivara,”’ and 
north for about one hundred and twenty miles up to the river Sangre 
de Christo. Throughout the whole of this region gold dust has been 
abundantly found by the poorer classes of Mexicans, who occupy 
themselves with washing it from the mountain streams. At present: 
the Old and New Placeres, or places where gold is obtained near 
Santa Fé, have attracted most attention, and not only gold washes 
but gold mines, also, are worked there. Yet they are probably the 
only gold mines at present wrought in the territory. The wash gold 
when examined was found to contain: 


Native Gold, : : : : eo 20 
Silver, . ; : : ; : 3.5 
Iron and Silex, . ; ‘ ; serreel@) 


100.0; — 
while the total annual production of both placeres seems to have 
varied considerably ;——in some years it was estimated at from thirty 
to forty thousand dollars, in others from sixty to eighty thousand, 
and in latter years, it is reputed to have ascended to even two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand. 

Several rich silver mines were, in Spanish times, worked at Avo, 
at Cerillos, and in the Nambe mountains, but none are in operation 
at present. Copper is found in abundance throughout the country, 
but principally at Las Tijeras, Jemas, Abiquia, and Gudalupita de 
Mora, but until a recent period only one copper mine was wrought 
south of the placeres. Iron, though also existing in very large quan- 
tities, has been entirely overlooked. Coal is found in different lo- 
calities — as in the Raton mountains; in the vicinity of the village 
of Jimez, south-west of Santa Fé; and in spots south of the placeres. 
Gypsum, common and selenite, are discovered abundantly, and it is 
said that mest extensive layers exist in the mountains near Algodon, 
on the Rio Grande, and in the neighborhood of the celebrated Salinas. 
It is used as common lime for white-washing, while the crystalline or 
selenite 1s employed instead of window glass. About one hundred 
miles, south south-east of Santa Fé, on the high table land between 
the Rio Grande and Pecos, are some extensive salinas or salt lakes, 
from which all the salt used in New Mexico is procured. Large 
caravans from Santa Fé visit this place every year during the dry 
season, and return heavily laden with the precious deposits. They 
either sell it for one and sometimes two dollars per bushel, or ex- 


change a poe of salt for a bushel of Indian corn. 
T 


358 CLIMATE—PUEBLO INDIANS. 


The climate of New Mexico differs of course in the higher 
mountainous parts from the lower valley of the Rio Grande; but, 
generally, it is temperate, constant and healthy. The summer heat 
in the valley of the river sometimes rises to near 100° Farenheit; 
yet the nights are always cool, pleasant, and refreshing. The 
winters are longer and severer than in Chihuahua, for the higher 
mountains are always covered with snow, while ice and snow are 
common in Santa Fé, though the Rio Grande is never sufficiently 
frozen to admit the passage of horses and vehicles. ‘The sky is 
generally clear and the atmosphere dry. Between July and October 
rain falls; but the wet season is not so constant or regular as in the 
Southern States of the Mexican Republic. Disease seems to be 
very little known except in the form of inflammations and typhoidal 
fevers during the winter. 


INDIAN PUEBLO, OR VILLAGE. 


Between the Indians and the whites,—except perhaps on the 
naciendas—there still continues the same old rancorous feeling 
which generated the general insurrection narrated in the historical 
part of this work. ‘The Pursio Indians live always isolated in 
their villages, cultivate the soil, raise some stock, and are generally 
poor, frugal, and sober. These various tribes, of which a large num- 
per still exist, are reduced to probably about seven thousand souls. 


WILD INDIANS ENUMERATED. 359 


They speak different dialects and sometimes broken Spanish. For 
the government of their communities they select a Cacique and a 
council, and in war are led by a Capitan. In religious rites they 
mingle Catholicism and Paganism. Their villages are very regu- 
larly built; though sometimes, there is but one large house of sev- 
eral stories, with a vast number of small rooms, in which all the 
inhabitants of the pueblo are quartered! Instead of doors in front, 
traps are made on the roofs of their dwellings to which they ascend 
by a ladder that is withdrawn during the night so as to secure them 
from surprise or attack. ‘Their dress consists of moccasins, short 
breeches and a woollen jacket or blanket; their black hair is usually 
worn long, while bows and arrows together with a lance and some- 
times a gun compose their weapons. ! 


The late Governor, Charles Bent, in a report to the United States 
Government from Santa Fé in 1846, presents the following state- 
ment of the tribes and numbers of the Wiip Inpians, who reside 
or roam in the regions which were then supposed to be comprised 
in New Mexico. Bent’s perfect familiarity with a district in which 
he had so long dwelt or traded, renders his enumeration of these 
savages an important historical fact in the history of the newly ac- 
quired Territory. 

Apaches or Jicarillas, 100 lodges comprising 500 souls. 


Apaches proper, S00 or 900). ° os DUO yc 
Utahs, Grande Unita rivers, 600 ‘“ My SOON aoast 


Utahs, Southern, PANO) nas ct PeA0O ts 
Navajos, 1,000 families “ TAM O Og 
Mogues, DO ee ae 2,450 * 
Comanches, “2,500 lodges << 12,000 « 
Cayugas, AO ee oe ZWUO > *§ 
Cheyennes, 300 « SFE ia) OOM a 
Arapahoes, A200. <6 sg EG OG reac 


Tor ans: fie. : : : ORO OU. meee 


According to a report made in October, 1849, by Mr. James S, 
Calhoun, Indian Agent at Santa Fé, the following summary of the 
Pueblos, and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, is based on a census 


1 We have used the full account given by Dr. Wislizenius, with but slight altera- 
tions of his language, because it is the most complete, consistent and satisfactory that 
we have encountered in our researches: We could neither improve its method or 
condense its matter. He is a close observer ; an accurate thinker ; an industrious 
traveller, and relates always from his personal observation. 


360 NUMBER OF PUEBLO INDIANS——CENSUS. 


ordered by the legislature of New Mexico, convened in December, 
1847; but it includes only individuals five years of age and upwards. 


PUEBLOS AND PUEBLO INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO. 


Puesio [npIANs 


Counties. PUEBLOS. over 5 years. 
County of Taos, . Taos, Picoris : ; as ee 
ee Rio Arriva, San Juan, Santa Clara. » 70D 


San Ildefonso, Namba, Po- 
joaque, Tezuque, 
Cochiti, Santo Domingo, 

es Santa Anna, < San Félipé, Santa Anna, Zia, 1,918 


ce Santa Fé, 590 


Jemez, 
ae Bernalillo, Sandia, Gleta, “4 : . Gee 
ce Valencia, Laguna, Acoma, Zunia, 1,800 
Opposite El Paso, Socoro, Islettas, . : . 600 


Total of PueBios 21. Total of Pueblo Indians 6,524 


These calculations will serve to aid in the estimates of present 
population, for no accurate census has been prepared officially for 
many years. 

In 1793, according to an enumeration then made, the whole 
population amounted to 30,953:—in 1833 it is estimafed, in the 
statistics of Galvan’s Calendar, at 52,300 individuals, who were 
divided by Muhlenpfordt and Dr, Wislizenius into 4 pure Spanish 
blood, 4; Creoles, 4; Mestizos, and +9 Pueblo Indians. These 
calculations, according to the above census of Pueblo Indians, 
would make the whole present population not more than thirteen 
or fourteen thousand, which is obviously incorrect unless the census 
of 1847 was most inaccurately made. 

In a letter from the Hon, Hugh N. Smith, delegate from New 
Mexico, addressed to the National Intelligencer, Washington, 
and published on the 25th of June, 1850, he desires to correct the 
mistakes which have been made in regard to the number and char- 
acter of the inhabitants of New Mexico. The number, he says, 
has been variously stated in the Congressional debates at from ten 
to seventy thousand; and generally one half, and sometimes all of 
them, are said to be Indians. ‘This is a great error,’ continues 
the delegate, ““we have a population of at least ninety thousand, 
of whom from ten to twelve thousand only are Pueblo Indians, and 
we do not estimate in our population any other kind of Indians ex- 
cept Pueblos. They are a quiet, inoffensive, honest, and indus- 
trious people; they own the best farming lands in the Territory, and 


PROXIMATE PRESENT POPULATION. 36] 


are engaged entirely in agricultural pursuits, and, as tax-paying In- 
dians, would be entitled to the privileges of citizens, and of the 
elective franchise in Texas. 

‘The census taken in New Mexico the year before the entrance 
of General Kearney into that Territory, showed the population to be 
one hundred thousand and two or three hundred over. This may 
not have been taken with great accuracy, but the best informed per- 
sons, and those who have lived there longest agree with me that we 
have not less than ninety thousand. Dr. Wislizenius, who is gene- 
rally correct in his accounts of travel, and who is relied upon as good 
authority, in his statistics of that country, is certainly mistaken in 
saying that ten-twentieths, or one-half of the population, are Pueblo 
Indians. I have travelled through the settled parts of that country 
two or three times a year for the last three years, and I know that 
not a fifth, or even one-sixth are Indians. 

‘¢ There are in New Mexico from twelve to fifteen hundred resi- 
dent American voters, emigrants from the different States, principally 
from the State of Missouri; the rest of the population is Mexican 
and Spanish.” 

Upon these estimates and calculations it would perhaps be fair, in 
arriving at a proximate enumeration of inhabitants, to give the fol- 
lowing ratios :— 


Witp Inpians, according to Governor Charles Bent, . 36,950 


PurEBLo Inpians, according to enumeration, : 2 Os024 
WuirtrE CRrEOLES, according to Dr. Gregg, . ; L000 
MEsTIZzOos, ae Ke ah us ‘ 09000 
AMERICANS, according to Hon. Hugh N. Smith, . ner, 1506 
104,974 

Deduct from this for Wild Indians, : : . 36,950 
68,024 

Deduct from this for Pueblo Indians, ; ; .. 6,524 


ProximaTE Tota oF Pure WuiteEs anp Mixep Races,! 61,500 


The more civilized inhabitants of New Mexico resemble their pa- 
rent stock in character and manners, save that they are somewhat 
tinctured with the habits of the Indian race, whose blood is mingled 


1 There are no negroes in New Mexico, and consequently neither mulattos nor 
zambos. ‘The fatal epidemic fever of a typhoid character that ravaged the whole pro- 
vince from 1837 to 1839, and the small pox in 1840, carried off nearly ten per cent. of 
the population. 


3862 CHARACTER OF PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT—SANTA Ff. 


more or less in the veins of all classes. The men are homely, the 
women pretty, and while the former are generally condemned for 
their indolence, insincerity and treacherousness, the latter are praised 
by all travellers for their frank, affectionate and gentle demeanor. 
Very little was ever done for education in this remote Territory, 
which was almost cut-off from the civilizing influences of the rest of 
the world. Its governors,—either sent by the central authorities of the 
Mexican Republic, or chosen by the people themselves, — were often 
overthrown by bloody revolutions; but, while in power, they used 
their offices as a prolific means of enriching themselves. Their in- 
tercourse with strangers from the north, and their facilities in fraud- 
ulently collecting or compromising duties upon the trade of the 
caravans, were constantly taken advantage of by the rapacious 
chiefs; nor could the national authorities attempt to control them, 
for the distance of Santa Fé from the capital always made the loyalty 
of New Mexico loose and insecure.! The governors, judiciary, 
and clergy of the Territory, naturally fostered this feeling among 
the people, and in many instances it was beneficial to the north of 
the Republic, especially in opposing the establishment of the tobacco 
monopoly and in resisting the introduction of the copper currency 
which elsewhere caused so much distress and ruin. 


The principal town in New Mexico is Santa Fé, or, as it is often 
written by Spaniards and Mexicans, Santa Fé de San Francisco. 
It is one of the oldest Spanish settlements in the north, and lies at 
an elevation of 7047 feet above the sea, in 35° 41’6”, north latitude, 
and 106° 2’ 30”, longitude west from Greenwich, according to the 
observations of Lieutenant Colonel Emory of the United States 
Topographical Engineers, and of Doctors Gregg and Wislizenius. 
The town is situated in a wide plain surrounded by mountains, 
about fifteen miles east of the Rio Grande del Norte. Immediately 
west of the town a snow-capped mountain rises up to a lofty height, 
and a beautiful stream of small mill power size, ripples down its 
sides and joins the river about twenty miles to the south-westward. 

Santa Fé is an irregular, scattered town, built of adobes or sun 
dried bricks, while most of its streets are common highways tra- 
versing settlements interspersed with extensive cornfields. The 
only attempt at any thing like architectural compactness and preci- 
sion, says Dr. Gregg, consists in four tiers of buildings, whose fronts 
are shaded with a fringe of rude portales or corridors. They stand 
around the public square, and comprise the Palacio or Governor’s 


1 See Grege’s Commerce of the Prairies, vol. i., p. 113. 


:: iY 
‘ z 
e 
2 
. 


ALBURQUERQUE—VALLEY OF TAOS. 363 


house, the custom house, barracks, calabozo, casa consistorial, the 
military chapel, besides several private residences, as well as most 
of the shops of the American traders. 


oe 

i i i ut a i i 
vl He 
il Hy mul 

a ae i 


ae " Mh) it / 
Hl a 


ree } 


. ; 
: i 
on HA 


PARROQUIA DE SANTA FE. 


ALBURQUERQUE is a town as large as Santa Fé, stretched for 
several miles along the left bank of the Rio Grande, and if not a 
handsomer, is at least not a worse looking place than the capital. 

The population of New Mexico, owing to the insecure tenure of 
life on a frontier which is constantly hable to the ravages of wild 
Indians, has always clustered together in towns and villages. These 
are scattered sone the valley of the rivers, and are pom only known 
as the “rio arriva” and “‘rio abajo” or “up stream” and “down 
stream” settlements. Even individual ranchos and haciendas serve 
as the nuclewt of large neighborhoods, and finally become important 
villages. All the principal locations of this character lie in the val- 
ley between one hundred miles north and one hundred and forty 
south of the capital. The most important of these next to the capital, 
is Ex VauLe pE Taos, whose name is derived from the Taosa 
tribe, a remnant of which still forms a Pueblo in the north of the 
district. No part of New Mexico equals this spot in productiveness; 
and although the bottom lands of the valleys where irrigation may be 
easily obtained have often produced over a hundred fold, yet the 


364 STATISTICS OF SANTA FE TRADE, ETC. 


uplands throughout all these elevated plains about the Rocky Moun- 
tains, must, in all probability, remain sterile in consequence of the 
extraordinary dryness of the atmosphere. Indeed, New Mexico 
possesses but few of those natural advantages which are necessary 
to a rapid progress of civilization. It is a region without a single 
communication by water with any other part of the world, and is 
imprisoned by chains of mountains extending for more than five hun- 
dred miles, except in the direction of Chihuahua from which, how- 
ever, its settlements are separated by a dreary desert of nearly two 
hundred miles. ! 

‘¢ Some general statistics of the Santa Fé trade,”’ says Dr. Gregg, 
‘¢may prove not wholly without interest to the mercantile reader. 
With this view I have prepared the following table of the probable 
amount of merchandise invested in the Santa Fé trade, from 1822 to 
1843 inclusive, and about the portion of the same transferred to the 
Southern markets (chiefly Chihuahua) during the same period ; to- 
gether with the approximate number of wagons, men and proprietors 
engaged each year : 


Amount | Wa- 


aes Prop’| Train to 
Years. Mase. Men. 


Remarks. 


gons. ietors|Chihuahua 
1822); 15,000 70} 60 Pack-animals only used. 
1823) 12,000 50} 30 do. do. 


1825} 65,000; 37) 130! 90; 5,000 do. do. 

1826} 90,000, 60) 100; 70} 7,000|Wagons only henceforth. 

1827} 85,000, 55) 90} 50] 8,000 

1828! 150,000, 100) 200} 80} 20,000)/Three men killed, being the first. 
1829} 60,000, 30} 50} 20 5,000\/1st U. S. Escort—one trader killed. 
1830) 120,000 70] 140) 60) 20,000|First oxen used by traders. 

1831} 250,000, 130) 320) 80} 80,000)/Two men killed. 

1832} 140,000, 70) 150) 40} 50,000 ‘alte defeated on Canadian 2 men 
1833) 180,000, 105) 185; 60) 80,000) Q killed, 3 perished. 

1834} 150,000, 80| 160] 50) 70,000\2d U.S. Escort. 

1835} 140,000, 75) 140) 40} 70,000 

1836} 130,000; 70! 135; 35) 60,000 

1837; 150,000, 80; 160) 35] 80,000 

1838] 90,000, 50} 100 aM 40,000 

1839} 250,000. 130! 250 100,000|Arkansas Expedition. 

1840} 50,000 30) 60 10,000|Chihuahua Expedition. 

1841} 150,000 60; 100 80,000/Texan Santa Fé Expedition. 

1842} 160,000 70) 120) 15) 90,000 

1843} 450,000 230! 350! 30! 300,000/3d U. S. Escort—Ports closed.’ ? 


‘ 
i 


1824} 35,000, 26) 100) 80 3,000 do. and wagons. 


pay aS 
woes 


The following valuable geographical information is derived from 
a statement published by Major James Henry Carleton, United 
States Army, in the National Intelligencer, and is founded on the 
measurements made by Captain Alexander B. Dyer, with a viameter, 
during the march of General Kearney against New Mexico. 


1 See Gregg, vol. i., chapter vil. ? Gregg, vol. ii., p. 160. 


4 


‘aa V.LINVS 


ri 
a 
— 


i= = 
moe 


ih 


ITINERARY FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH. 365 


ROUTE FROM FORT LEAVENWORTH TO EL PASO, VIA 


SANTA FE. 
Batis: Distance from Distance from 
place to place. Fort Leavenworth. 
Fort Leavenworth to — Miles. Mules. 
Upper Ferry, Kansas river, . rss) 35 
Willow Spring, : ; ; 17 52 
110 Creek, . : ie ithe aH DA: 76 
Beaver Creek, . : : : 12 88 
Dragoon Creek, ‘ ; ; ae ae 96 
Bluff Creek, : ‘ ‘ 13 109 
Council Grove, _. ‘ See 121 
Diamond Spring, : 15 136 
Lost Spring, Pea : . 14 150 
Cotton Wood, . ; : 15 165 
Main Turkey Creek, , 2718 183 
Little Arkansas, : : ; 26 209 
Big Cow Creek, . ; ‘ i 230 
Walnut Creek, ‘ . : 25 209 
Pawnee Fork, : : é 20 280 
Cow Creek, ; ‘ ; } 12 292 
Fort Mann, . } owt 1 55 347 
Crossing of Arkansas, : : 26 373 
Sand Creek, : 5 : ~~ + 50 423 
Lower Spring on Cimerone, : 8 A431 
Middle Spring, ; : : . 3d4 465 
Crossing of Cimerone, ‘ 27 492 
Cold Spring, : : PH 18 510 
Cedar Spring, . : : 14 524. 
McNee’s Creek, PET 10 534 
Cotton Wood, . : ; : 10 544 
Rabbit-ear Spring, : : Sa 558 
Whetstone, : ¥ : : 24 582 
Point-of- Rocks, ‘ ; ; He YE O97 
Red River, : d : : 21 618 
Ocate, : ; j : to 623 
Wagon Mound, q : ; 20 643 
Rock Creek, : : ‘ . 16 659 
Mora River, ‘ : : : 8 667 
Las Vegas, : : : Sipe te, 686 
St. Miguel, : ‘ : : 23 709 
Old Peco Church, . ; : “Wed 733 


2u 


366 TO SANTA FE AND EL PASO. 


SLL: sae oe Por, Tene : 

Old Pecos Church to— Miles. . Miles. 
Santa Fé, : ; : : 24 757 
Alburquerque, : : ; 2, OO 822 
Peralto (The Oteros), : : 
La Joya, 4 : : : BR RES) 887 
Socorme,.. ; 18 905 
Ford of Del None. abpve a ruins of 7 

Valverde,} ; ‘ : sae 930 
Fra Christoval, entrance of Jornada 

de los Muertos, ; ‘ : 16 946. 
Dona Anna (Mexican town), . . (95 1,041 
Grove on river, . : : : 15 1,056 
Brazito, ; 4 : : . 16 1,072 
Hl Paso, . 32 1,104 © 


Notrrt.—The howe? ine Bateeen the United States and Mex- 
ico, leaves the Del Norte a few miles above the town of El Paso, 
running west towards the Gila. 


1The roads by Gen. Kearney’s and by Brevet Lieut. Col. Cooke’s routes leave the 
Rio Grande for California some fifteen or twenty miles below the ford at Valverde ; 
the former just opposite, and the latter below a point on the left bank of the river 
known as San Diego. 


THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 


/ 


TITLE TO THE REGION — MISSIONARY SETTLEMENT, ITS PURPOSES 
— CHARACTER OF CALIFORNIA — SECULARIZATION OF MISSIONS 
— POPULATION IN MISSIONS — AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS — 
CATTLE — HIDES— TALLOW — HERDSMEN TRADE— THE WAR 
—CONDITION OF CALIFORNIA AT ITS CLOSE— PROGRESS OF 
SETTLEMENT AND LAW — CONSTITUTION ADOPTED — ADMISSION 
AS A STATE— FORMER BOUNDARIES — THE GREAT BASIN— 
UTAH — GREAT SALT LAKE — PYRAMID LAKE — RIVERS — PRE- 
SENT STATE BOUNDARIES —AREA — GEOGRAPHY — SACRAMEN- 
TO — SAN JOAQUIN — SHASTL PEAK. 


Tue Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo confirmed the title to Upper 
California which the United States had gained by war. Although 
the geographical position of that region, the security of its harbors, 
and the supposed value of its soil, had attracted the attention of 
our people at an early day, it was not imagined, at the period 
of the cession, that the new territory would so soon become the 
‘nucleus of the first Anglo-Saxon empire on the shores of the 
Pacific. Its rapid development was owing rather to circumstances 
of an extraordinary character, than to the commercial and pro- 
gressive spirit of our citizens; but the national energy which is 
always alive to individual interests, was never more completely 
illustrated than by the alacrity with which all classes rushed to the 
new scenes of labor, and turned to gold the soils that Indians and 
Mexicans had trodden for centuries as worthless sand. 

Lower California was discovered, visited, and partly settled by the 
Spanish adventurers soon after the Mexican conquest, and although 
the coasts of Upper California had been explored in 1542, it was 
not until the eighteenth century that the “spiritual conquest” of 
that distant region was undertaken by the Roman clergy, under 
whose directions the missions were founded upon a ‘pious fund,” 
created by the zealous Catholics of Mexico. At that time it was 
supposed that the civilizing influences of religion would not only win 
thousands of savages to the worship of God, but that by blending 
agriculture and trade under the tutelage of the church, the Indians 


368 CHARACTER OF CALIFORNIA—SECULARIZATION OF MISSIONS. 


might be rendered valuable subjects of the Spanish crown. The 
government well knew that the Spaniards were neither sufficiently 
numerous nor adventurous in Mexico to throw large bodies of hardy 
men into so remote a province on the shores of the Pacific, and it 
was, therefore, imagined that the actual native population of the 
district might be tamed by religion to supply the place of Christian 
immigration. 

All the explorers who visited Upper California reported favorably 
on the character of the country. It was known to possess induce- 
ments to a profitable trade. ‘The golden east opened its gates in 
front of it; and the country was supposed to contain valuable metal- 
lic deposits which might be slowly and surely developed. But the 
labors of the clergy did not respond to the expectations of the gov- 
ernment. The priests were contented with present comfort rather 
than anxious for future success. The mass of the Indians were 
brought into a state of comparative vassalage, as we have seen in 
the chapter on the church of Mexico, and all the most valuable or 
accessible lands were rapidly absorbed, to the exclusion of hardy, 
persevering, and thrifty white men. ! 

Although the clergy were the virtual proprietors of the agri- 
cultural and cattle raising districts, the viceroyal government con- 
trived to retain a loose and limited control over this district, until 
the period of the revolution. In 1824, on the adoption of the fed- 
eral constitution, as the Californias did not possess sufficient popu- 
lation to become States of the federation, they were erected into 
Territories, with a right to send a member to the general congress, 
who, though suffered to participate in debate, was not allowed to 
vote in its decisions. As Territories they were under the govern- 
ment of an agent styled the Commandant-General, whose powers 
were very extensive. 

After the revolution the first progressive step was made by the 
secularization of the missions. In 1833, under the vigorous lead of 
Gomez Farias, the salaries of the monks were suspended, the Indians 
were released from servitude, the pious fund was confiscated, the 
division of property among natives and settlers decreed, and an ex- 
tensive plan proposed to fill the country by immigration. These 
blows fell heavily upon the monastic farmers and herdsmen of those 
trading churches. The missions were speedily deserted, their edi- 
fices and establishments decayed, and, near the period of their close, 
the whole result of this abortive ecclesiastical civilization, was sum- 
med up in the paltry numbers exhibited in the following statement: 


1 See vol. il., page 137. 


POPULATION IN MISSIONS—AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. 369 


MISSIONS AND THEIR POPULATION IN UPPER CALIFORNIA IN 1831. 


Names of the Jurisdictions, Missions, PEOPLE OF ALL CLASSES AND AGES. 
and Towns. Men. Women. Boys. Girls. Total. 

ms  (Presipio or S. Francisco. . . . . 124 85 89 is 37] 
2 § | Town of San José de Guadalupe . . . 166 145 103 110 524 
4% & | Mission of S. Francisco Solano . . . 285 249 88 90 705 
a) id. Of sr Riataelsc-s.e ner taeuggtae. 406 410 105 106 =1027 
Bros) Gt’ of S. Francisco. . » . - 146 65 13 13) 4, 230 
ae id. of Santa Clara. 8508 ke ea. 162 491 68 60 137] 
oe id. OS RTOSEC MES Mar hss Ge ak. eee 659 100 4b et 
= id. Of Santa Crugieacc 4. «1 ante] 94 30 20 366 
i, PResipio or MONTEREY -....-... « 311 190 110 97 708 
Se vallace of Branciforte,. p20 je. oe ep en 02 34 27 1 ii 130 
2% | Mission of 8. Juan Bautista , . . . 480 351 85 71 987 
eles id. of S. Carlos... Bh ea AO 79 34 PA 236 
iiss id. of Na. sa. de la Soledad «eee elO 81 23 20 334 
od. ofS. Antonio |: /2 894 909 51 17 6a 
= | id. Oise Mowe sot a fae B49 292 46 6] 748 
Se ide ofS. lus Obispo. . 1... >. 211. 103 8 th SP) 
6 , {Presmprio or Sta. Banpara . . . . 167 120 162 164 613 
pace! Mission: of aa Purissima , . .< %.o. 151 218 AT 34 450 
Seiad of Sta. Ines... ..... 142° 136 82 96 456 
eee Wate \‘of Stay Barbara °° 4." ) .. -8T4 © 267 51 70° 762 
a | id. of Buenaventura 1. «i 2. . (383 283 66 59 791 
aed id. of S. Fernando . eae O49 226 177 18] 833 
© & | Town of la Reyna de los Angelos . . 552 421 213 202 1388 
ZS Exes oh Sie ince Sea Menge, Mesa te an 
= © | Mission of vabrie nia: AS ea ; 
3 = id. of S. Juan Capistrano. . . ied 191] 683 621 5686 
le id. OOS Rey "eee ys e- LLSS 
ee . id. Oho! DielOn ce eee OO 520 162 146 =1575 
5 Oo = ——— SSS 


1 Totals 10,272 7632 2623 2498 23,025 


Agriculture had always been most carelessly conducted. The 
implements used in the fields were nearly the same as those intro- 
duced by the earliest settlers. ‘The mills were few and primitive ; 
and although the same extent of ground yielded nearly three times 
as much wheat as in England, and returned corn at the rate of one 
hundred and fifty fold, yet nothing was cultivated that was not abso- 
lutely needed for the maintenance of the missions and their imme- 
diate neighborhoods. ‘There was no commerce to carry off the 
excess of production, and no enterprise to create a surplus for the 
purposes of trade. 

At this epoch the whole cereal production of Upper California did 
not exceed — 

63,000 bushels of wheat. 
28.000 1°" ot, Conn: 
4,200 ‘ — of frijoles or brown beans. 
2,800 <‘ of garabanzos or peas. 
13,500. ax barley. 
The Californians, of that period, seem however, to have particu- 


larly delighted in the care of cattle. The idle, roving life of herds- 
1 Forbes’s California, p. 202. 


370 CATTLE — HIDES — TALLOW—HERDSMEN — TRADE. 


men, who might wander over the plains and mountains in search of 
their flocks, was peculiarly suited to a population emerging from the 
nomadic state; and accordingly we find that the region was well 
stocked, whilst the missions and their dependencies flourished. In 
1831, Mr. Forbes tells us, that there were in this province,— 


216,127 ; ; é . Horned Cattle, 
S2,1007 . : : é Horses, 
2,844 : ; : . Mules, 
LHI vote . ; : Asses, 
153,455 : : ; ./ sheep, 
L873 : : : Goats, 
839 . Swine. 


In addition to these there were vast numbers, roaming at large, 
which were not marked or branded, according to California laws, 
as belonging to any of the jurisdictions, missions, haciendas or 
towns. ‘These were hunted and slain to prevent their interference 
with the pasturage of the more useful and appropriated cattle; yet 
from all this multitude but little profit was gained except for hides 
and tallow. Beef was not salted and prepared for foreign markets, 
the dairy was altogether neglected, and butter and cheese almost 
unknown. In the earlier days of the settlement, many thousand 
cattle were annually driven either to the city of Mexico or to the 
interior provinces from the large estates on the Pacific; but that 
traffic was gradually abandoned under the habitual sloth of the peo- 
ple, nor was it until many years after the trade of the ports was 
opened by the war of independence, that a comparatively brisk in- 
tercourse opened with the Sandwich Islands and our own people, 
who were willing to exchange their manufactures for the hides and 
tallow of the Californians. 


Such was the condition of affairs in this primitive pastoral region 
when the war between Mexico and the United States broke out. 
For a long time the natives and settlers had been discontented with 
their national government that usurped the milder sway of the 
clergy; yet it is probable that most of the revolutionary movements 
were founded on personal ambition and avarice rather than patriotic 
impulses, nor is it likely that the territory would have secured its in- 
dependence without the aid of a foreign power. British interests 
had undoubtedly counselled the acquisition of California; but the 
fate of war suddenly threw it into our hands, and probably at the 
very moment when English subjects and the Mexican government 
were combining to exclude us from the positions on the Pacific 


THE WAR—CONDITION OF CALIFORNIA AT ITS CLOSE. 9371 


which were so necessary for our mercantile progress as well as po- 
litical and maritime convenience. 

As soon as the country was quieted by the arrangement which 
Colonel Frémont made with the Californian leaders at Couenga, the 
people who had been engaged in the brief local war returned to 
their peaceful avocations. Our forces were stationed in small de- 
tachments, from Sutter’s fort to San Diego, while our national ves- 
sels were anchored in the different harbors throughout the whole 
coast. In the maritime towns the supreme authorities collected 
a revenue from imports under the Contribution tariff. Order was 
promptly restored every where; but the only recognized control 
was that of the military government, which had devolved upon 
Colonel Mason at the departure of General Kearney. 

Meanwhile the emigration from the United States, which amount- 
ed to about five hundred individuals during the summer and fall of 
1845, had been considerably augmented by recruits and adventurers 
during the continuance of the war. These men, as soon as hos- 
tilities ceased, naturally turned their attention to the two most im- 
portant subjects that engage an American’s attention wherever for- 
tune may cast his lot. Their future prospects of wealth, and the 
character of their government, demanded immediate care; yet 
while they relied upon Congress for the security of their political 
rights, they found, in spite of California’s renown for agricultural 
riches, that they could only establish themselves successfully on the 
Pacific, or return with fortunes from its shores, by a steady and 
thrifty devotion to labor. 

Such was the condition of California in the spring of 1848, when 
the accidental discovery of gold which might be rapidly and easily 
gathered in apparently inexhaustible quantities, changed not only 
the condition of the inhabitants, but affected the whole commerce 
of the world. ‘The towns were forthwith deserted by their male 
population, and a complete cessation of the whole industrial pur- 
suits of the country was the consequence. Commerce, agriculture, 
mechanical pursuits, professions,— all were abandoned for the pur- 
pose of gathering the glittering treasures which lay buried in the 
ravines, gorges and rivers of the Sierra Nevada. The productive 
industry of the country was annihilated in a day. In some in- 
stances the moral perceptions were blunted, and men left their 
families unprovided, and soldiers deserted their posts.” ! 

But the greediness of the adventurers soon taught them that 


Gwin, Frémont, Wright and Gilbert: Memorial to Congress accompanying the 
Constitution of California, 12 March, 1850. 


S12 PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT AND LAW. 


they could not subsist on gold, and that after the first deposits were 
gathered in the most accessible regions, it was necessary for them 
to wander farther and farther from the coast settlements, until they 
were lost in the lonely and barren glens of the mountains. There, 
at the approach of winter, they found themselves without the means 
of comfort or support. In the meanwhile, however, the news of 
the discovered El Dorado crossed the continent, and although its 
marvels were regarded by many as fabulous, there were others who 
resolved at once either to abandon their homes for the wilderness 
or to despatch valuable cargoes whose enormous profits would ab- 
sorb the miner’s wealth. 

Under these mingled temptations of trade and discovery, an im- 
mense immigration, chiefly of males, poured into California, not 
only from the United States but from Oregon, Mexico, Chili, Peru, 
China and the Sandwich Islands, all of whom soon saw the neces- 
sity of once more subdividing human labors into their ordinary 
channels as well as proportions; and thus, while commerce took 
the lead in the ports and warehouses, mechanical and _ professional 
pursuits equally assumed their relative importance, and partly re- 
stored the endangered balance of society. 


Within a year after this wonderful discovery, the Californians felt 
that they were no longer outlying colonists of the American Union, 
requiring pecuniary support from the mother State and military 
protection against savages. Their lot was strangely reversed in the 
history of distant settlements, for wealth had been secured in ad- 
vance of inhabitants and trade. Gold, a large population, and re- 
constructed social relations, brought with them the necessity for 
firm, fixed constitutional government. ‘The fermenting elements of 
a motly society were effervescing, and the substratum of order and 
civilization was rapidly chrystallizing. The dollar dulled the bowie 
knife. Immense fleets, arriving from all parts of the world, poured 
large revenues into the national coffers. Intelligent and industrious 
men thronged the towns that sprang up, as if by enchantment, 
at every advantageous point. All the great mercantile interests 
were rapidly developed. Property in land and moveables become 
suddenly valuable beyond the hopes or dreams of the early settlers. 
Discussions arose as to titles and rights. Spanish laws, uncertain 
in their character or sanction, and American laws of doubtful appli- 
cation, were hastily enforced by judges whom the wants of the 
time summoned to the bench from uncongenial pursuits to adminis- 
ter justice in courts which were quite as incongruously constructed. 


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CONSTITUTION ADOPTED—-ADMISSION AS A STATE. Bia 


In such a state of society, men were naturally anxious to know 
their relations to the Federal Government whose Congress adjourn- 
ed two sessions after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo without 
legislating for the ceded territories. It might almost have been 
pardoned, had California, feeling her power, position and _self- 
reliant resources, asserted her independence after so much neglect. 
Yet, in the midst of all these temptations, and in spite of our peo- 
ple’s abhorrence of a military government, there never was a more 
beautiful demonstration of national loyalty and affinity than in the 
regular assemblage, in that remote quarter of the world, of citizens 
from all our States, and of all classes, characters, tempers, professions 
and avocations, to form a republican constitution which would en- 
sure admission into our Union. ‘Their military governor, it is true, 
had set the example of submission to the civil power, by directing 
the election of delegates; but the people asserted their inherent 
right, independently of the military authority; and, although they 
acted in harmony with their estimable ruler, the constitution was 
emphatically the result of popular impulse and judgment alone. 
The convention, thus assembled, met at Monterey on the Ist of 
September, 1849, and closed its work on the 13th of October by 
submitting an excellent constitution to the people for their adoption. 
The document was forthwith disseminated in Spanish and English, 
and no attempt was made to mislead or control public opinion in 
relation to it. The people gave it their sanction by an overwhelm- 
ing majority, and the legislature which was elected under it, as- 
sembled at San José, the capital of the State, on the 15th of Decem- 
ber, 1849. Peter H. Burnett, who had been chosen first governor 
of the Pacific Empire State, was duly inaugurated, and on the 20th 
of the same month, the military governor, General Riley, resigned 
his power into the hands of the civil agents of the organized State. 
After a warm and embittered discussion in Congress at Washing- 
ton, California, with all her sovereign rights, was finally admitted 
into the North American Union, on the 9th day of September, 
1850. . 
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by the transfer of Upper Cali- 
fornia as it existed and was bounded in May 1848, conferred a 
magnificent domain upon the United States. This, however, has 
been subdivided by the action of Congress and the California Con- 
vention, and the new Territory or Utah formed out of a portion of it. 
The original grant comprises the region between the parallels 
of 32° 50’ and 40° of north latitude, and 106° and 124° west 
longitude, containing an area of four hundred and forty-eight 

2V 


374 FORMER BOUNDARIES — THE GREAT BASIN — UTAH. 


thousand six hundred and ninety one square miles, or, two hundred 
and eighty seven million, one hundred and sixty two thousand two 
hundred and forty acres of Jand. ‘In other words, our original 
territory of Upper California, embraced twelve hundred and two 
square miles more than the States of Maine, Vermont, New Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, 
combined !”? } 

The California Convention, in shaping their new State, thought 
it advisable to diminish this unwieldy empire, a large portion of 
which was, in truth, divided by the evident decree of nature from 
the Pacific region. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra 
Nevada, at an elevation of between four thousand and five thousand 
feet above the sea lies that singular geographical formation which 
was first explored by Colonel Frémont, and is known as the Great 
Basin. This is now comprehended in the Territory of Utah. Itis 
about five-hundred miles in diameter, counting either from north to 
south or east to west; and, imprisoned on all sides by mountains, 
it has its own complete system of rivers and lakes, all of which 
have no outlet to the Oceans on either side of the continent. Its 
steep interior hills and mountains are covered with forests, and rise 
abruptly from a base of ten or twenty miles to a height of seven or 
ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Many large bodies 
-.of water are confined in its capacious bosom, and among them are 
the Utah and Great Salt Lakes. The shores of the latter, extend- 
ing in length about seventy miles, have been seized and occupied 
by the Mormons as the seat and centre of their future State. Im- 
mense quantities of salt are gathered from its banks when the wa- 
ters of this inland sea recede during the dry seasons of these lofty 
plains and table lands. The waters of the Utah, however, are per- 
fectly fresh ; and, near the western edge of the Basin, is found the 
picturesque Pyramid Lake which is also shut in by mountains, and 
is remarkable for its depth and transparent purity. 

To the southward of this, bordering the base of the Sierra 
Nevada, within the Basin, is a long range of lakes; while many 
copious rivers disperse their water throughout its ungenial expanse. 
The chief of these streams is Humboldt River, which rises in the 


1 See the admirable ‘‘Paper upon California’’ read by that accomplished scholar 
J. Morrison Harris, before the Maryland Historical Society in March 1849. It has 
been published and forms, in the estimation of competant judges, the best resumé 
and most philosophical disquisition upon California that has been hitherto issued 
from the press. 


GREAT SALT LAKE—PYRAMID LAKE — RIVERS. 375 


mountains west of the Great Salt Lake, and runs westwardly along 
the northern side of the Basin towards the Sierra Nevada of Cali- 
fornia. It courses onward for three hundred miles, without afflu- 
ents, through a sterile plain, though the valley of its own creation is 
richly covered with grasses and bordered with willows and cotton 
wood. This remarkable stream will become of vast importance in 
the travel towards California, for, rising towards the Salt Lake, it 
pursues nearly the direct route towards the Pass of the Salmon 
Trout river through the gorges of the Sierra Nevada, where at an 
elevation of less than three thousand six hundred feet above the 
level of the Basin, the pathway descends into the Valley of the 
Sacramento, and penetrates the State of California only forty miles 
north of Sutter’s original settlement. 

The other known rivers of this strange and partially explored 
region, are the Carson, Bear, Utah, Nicollet and Salmon Trout, 
most of whose streams, furnished by the snowy peaks of the Sierra, 
are absorbed in marshes and lakes, or return by evaporation to the 
icy sources whence they sprang. 


Such are the prominent features of this vast Basin or Table-land, 
in the interior of our continent, but as it is now separated by legis- 
lation from its former territorial adjunct, we shall pass at once to 


376 PRESENT STATE BOUNDARIES — AREA — GEOGRAPHY. 


the consideration of the present boundary of California. This, ac- 
cording to the XIIth article of the State Constitution, sanctioned 
by the act of Congress, commences at the point of intersection of 
the 42nd degree of north latitude with the 120th degree of longitude 
west from Greenwich, and runs south, on the line of the 120th de- 
eree of longitude until it intersects the 39th degree of north latitude; 
thence a straight line pursues a south-easterly direction to the River 
Colorado, at a point where it intersects the 35th degree of north 
latitude; thence, the boundary runs down the middle of the chan- 
nel of that river, to the boundary line between the United States 
and Mexico, as established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; 
thence, west and along said boundary line to the Pacific Ocean and 
extending therein three miles; thence, north-westwardly, following 
the direction of the Pacific coast, to the 42nd degree of north lati- 
tude; thence, on the line of the 42nd degree to the place of begin- 
ing, —including all the islands, harbors, and bays along and adja- 
cent to the Pacific coast, 

The superficial area of the State is reduced, according to these 
boundaries, from the former enormous size, to one hundred and 
fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty square miles, or ninety- 
nine millions five hundred and fifty-two thousand square acres, ex- 
clusive of the islands adjacent to the coast. 

The noble Empire State thus constructed lies west of the Sierra 
Nevada, and was wisely fashioned to avoid jurisdiction beyond the 
mountains. It is strongly contrasted in appearance with the sterili- 
ty of the Great Basin. Crossing the Sirrra Nrvapa at the Pass 
traversed by Frémont in February 1844, the traveller finds himself 
about four degrees south of the northern boundary of the State, and, 
as he looks westward down the slope of the mountains, the whole 
of California lies at his feet. The declivities of the Sierra, with a 
breadth of from forty to seventy miles, anda length from north to 


south of about five hundred, are heavily wooded with oak, pine, 


cypress and cedar, while innumerable small streams, rising in the 
melted snows of the lofty peaks, traverse their rugged sides. These 
rivulets descend through glens and gorges,—sometimes barren, 
sometimes luxuriant, — until they disgorge themselves into the Sac- 
ramento and San Joaquin. The first of these,—rising in the north 
at the base of the gigantic Shastl which lifts its snowy diadem four- 
teen thousand feet above the sea,—sweeps suuthward towards the 
thirty-eighth degree of latitude; while the second, oozing from the 
fens and marshes of lake Tulares, runs northward until it mingles 
with the Sacramento, —when both, swollen by their tributaries from 


SACRAMENTO — SAN JOAQUIN — SHASTL PEAK. STe 


the Sierra Nevada, are finally discharged into the Pacific by the bay 
of San Francisco which bursts through a gap in a lower chain of 
mountains bordering the coast. This western Coast Range, averag- 
ing about two thousand feet in height, forms, with the Eastern Sierra 
Nevada, the intermediate sloping plain or valley which is complete- 
ly drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin. 


SHASTL PEAK. 


THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 


CONTINUED. 


CONFIGURATION OF THE STATE— BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND 
CITY—RIVERS OF CALIFORNIA—CHARACTER OF SOIL, ETC.— 
RELATIVE STERILITY AND PRODUCTIVENESS — CLIMATE — DRY 
AND WET SEASONS — CAUSES OF CHANGE — CLIMATE IN SAN 
FRANCISCO, COAST RANGE VALLEYS AND INTERIOR VALLEY — 
AREA OF ARABLE AND GRAZING LAND — PRODUCTIONS — DIS- 
COVERY OF GOLD — ITS POSITION —THE PLACERES — WASHING 
— DIGGING — THE MINES — CALCULATIONS AS TO THE YIELD 
OF THE MINES — GOLD YIELDED BY CALIFORNIA — ITS QUALITY 
—QUICKSILVER MINES— COMMERCE — POPULATION — GROWTH 
OF CITIES—OLD PRESIDIOS —TOWNS—LAND TITLES—MISSION 
LANDS— CONCLUSION. 


Tue State of California, as at present formed by its constitution, 
lies chiefly between the Sierra Nevada and the sea. North and 
south, it embraces about ten degrees of latitude, from 32°, where 
it touches the peninsula of Lower California, to 42°, where it 
bounds on Oregon. East and west, from the Sierra Nevada to the 
sea, it will average, in the central parts, one hundred and fifty miles, 
and in the northern, two hundred. The whole State is thus, in 
truth, a single geographical formation or great valley, though com- 
monly divided into the valleys of San Joaquin and Sacramento — 
the two great streams which flow from the north and south until 
they meet near the centre of the State and wend their way to the 
ocean through the bay of San Francisco. 

This beautiful arm of the ocean, which is pronounced by all geo- 
graphers to be one of the most wonderful harbors in the world, was 
discovered about 1768 by a party of Franciscan friars, who be- 
stowed upon it the name of their patron Saint. Completely land- 
locked, it is capable of sheltering the most extended commerce. 
Approached from the sea, a bold outline of coast scenery is pre- 
sented to the observer. On the south, the bordering mountains 
descend in narrow ranges, lashed by the surf of the Pacific. On 
the north, a bluff promontory rises full three thousand feet above 


pa aeewes catia 


ATTA 


BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 


4} 


me ee a see eS me ee ee eae a ome =~ ee ~ Rw ens ee Se ee 2 = 
‘ se “ Soo ee i Re ett 


BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND CITY. 379 


the sea, while, betwixt these points, walled in by lofty cliffs on 
either side, a narrow strait, about a mile in width and five in length, 
with a depth in mid channel of forty and forty-five fathoms, forms 
the Chrysopole or Golden Gate. Beyond this, the wonderful bay 
of San Francisco opens like an inland sea to the nght and left, ex- 
tending in each direction about thirty-four miles, with a length of 
more than seventy and a coast of two hundred and seventy-five. 
The interior view of this lake-like estuary is broken in parts by 
islands, some of which are mere rocky masses, while others, green 
with vegetation, protrude from the water for three hundred or four 
hundred feet. The bay is divided by promontories and straits into 
three portions. At its northern extremity is Whaler’s harbor, 
which communicates by a strait two miles long with San Pablo bay, 
a circular basin ten miles in diameter; at the northern extremity of 
this a strait of greater length, called Carquinez, connects with Suis- 
sun bay, which is nearly equal in size and shape to San Pablo, and 
into this bay the confluent waters of the Sacramento and San Joa- 
quin are emptied. A delta of twenty-five miles in length, divided 
into islands by deep channels, connects the Suissun bay with the 
valley of these rivers, into whose mouths the tide flows regularly. 

On the bay of San Francisco is situated the marvellous city of 
the same name, which sprang up, almost ‘‘in a night,” and was 
constructed of materials quite as frail as those of “the gourd.” 
The town lies about four miles from the narrows or straits by which 
the bay is entered, on its west side, and on the northern point of 
the peninsula between the southern portion of the estuary and the 
Pacific. Its site is in a cove, faced and protected at the distance 
of two miles by the large island of Yerba Buena. ‘The land rises 
gradually for more than half a mile from the water’s edge, towards 
the west and south-west, until it terminates in a range of hills five 
hundred feet above the sea. North of the town is a large bluff, 
plunging precipitously into the bay, in front of which is the best 
anchorage. | 

The most important rivers of California are, of course, the San 
Joaquin and Sacramento. The San Joaquin, running from south 
to north, is represented to be navigable in some seasons for a greater 
part of its length, during eight months of the year. Its chief afflu- 
ents, lying altogether on its eastern side, and pouring down from 
the Sierra Nevada, are the Lake Fork, Acumnes, Tuolumne, Stan- 
islaus, Calaveras, Mukelumne, Mariposa and Cosumnes. The Rio 
Colorado of the West forms part of the eastern State boundary, from 
the 35th degree of north latitude to the Mexican line, but it flows 


380 RIVERS OF CALIFORNIA. 


through a region at present very little known or valued, yet future 
explorations may show it to be valuable. Its deep colored waters, 
similar to those of the Missouri and Red rivers east of the moun- 
tains, indicate that it probably has not passed through an entirely 
ungenerous soil. The valley of the Gila, whose waters are clear, is 
known to be barren. 


The Sacramento runs from north to south through an inclined 
alluvial prairie, and is described as a deep, broad and _ beautiful 
stream. It flows through a fine region, and is navigable for vessels 
of considerable draught as high as the settlements in the neighbor- 
hood of Sutter’s original location. ‘The principal tributaries of 
this river, also, originate in the melting snows of the Eastern Sierra, 
and are known as the Antelope, Deer, Mill and Chico creeks, and 
the Butte, Dorado, Plumas or Feather, Yuba, Bear and American 
rivers. Cottonwood creek and some other smaller streams are dis- 
gorged into it from the slopes of the Western or Coast Range. 
The Trinity and a few at the north, run into the Pacific. 

In order to comprehend the agricultural and mineral value of 
California, it is necessary to glance at the structure of the region. 
Upon the forty-first parallel of latitude, in a fork of the Sierra Ne- 


CHARACTER OF SOIL, ETC. 381 


vada, is a tract of high table land, about one hundred miles in 
length, surrounded on all sides by mountains, and called by Fré- 
mont the Upper Vauuey of the Sacramento. Here the growth of 
timber is vigorous and immense, for the climate and productions 
are modified by altitude as well as latitude. ‘The Sacramento river, 
rising in the mountains at its northern extremity, reaches the Lower 
Valley through a gorge or cafion on the line of Shast! Peak, falling 
two thousand feet in twenty miles. 

The Lower VALLEY is subdivided, as we have stated, into the 
valleys of the two great rivers, both of which are, at most, only a 
few hundred feet above the level of the sea, and gradually slope 
towards the bay. The foot hills of the Sierra Nevada limiting 
the valleys, make a woodland country diversified with undulating 
grounds and pretty vales or glens watered by numerous small 
streams. These afford many advantageous spots for farms, occa- 
sionally forming large bottoms of rich, moist land. Below 39° of 
latitude, and west of the foot hills, the forests are limited to scat- 
tering groves of oak in the valleys and on the borders of streams; 
or, of red wood on the ridges and in the gorges. With these ex- 
ceptions, the whole region presents a surface without shrubbery 
or trees, though a few hills are shaded by dwarted and stunted 
groves which may be used as fuel. California is covered, how- 
ever, with various kinds of grasses and with wild oats, which grow 
luxuriantly in the valleys for many miles from the coast, but, ripen- 
ing early in the season, they soon cease to protect the soil from the 
sun’s scorching rays. As summer advances, the moisture in the 
atmosphere, and to a considerable depth in the earth, is completely 
exhausted, and the radiation of heat from the parched plains and 
naked hill sides becomes insufferable. North of the Bay of San 
Francisco, between the Sacramento and Joaquin valley and the 
coast, the country is cut up by mountain ridges and rolling. hills, 
with many fertile, watered valleys. Immediately along the coast, 
lie open prairies, belted or broken by occasional forests, and inter- 
spersed with extensive fields of wild grain. Around the southern 
arm of the bay, a low, alluvial bottom land, sometimes overgrown 
by oaks, borders the western foot of the Coast Range, terminating, 
on a breadth of thirty miles, in the valley of San José. In this 
neighborhood, too, is the lovely valley of San Juan, which is pro- 
bably the garden of the new State. These two valleys form a con- 
tinuous plain of fifty-five miles in length, and from one to twenty 
miles in breadth, opening with smaller valleys among the hills. 
The balmy region, enclosed between the coast range and the lower 

2w 


382 RELATIVE STERILITY AND PRODUCTIVENESS. 


hills upon the ocean, is blessed with a soil of singular fertility, a 
fine, dry atmosphere, and a soft, delicious climate. It is wooded 
with majestic trees, covered with rich grasses, brilliant with an end- 
less variety of flowers, and produces profusely the fruits of the 
temperate and tropical zones. ; 

South of Point Concepcion the climate and general appearance of 
the country are changed. From that point the coast bends almost 
directly east; the face of the country obtains a more southern expo- 
sure, and is sheltered by ranges of low mountains or hills from the 
bleak violence of north-west storms. The climate accordingly is 
more genial, and fosters a richer variety of productions than is 
found on the northern coasts. 

The valleys parallel with the coast range, as well as those which 
extend eastwardly in all direetions among the hills towards the 
great plain of the Sacramento, are of unsurpassed fertility. ‘Their 
soil is a deep, black alluvian, and so porous that it remains perfectly 
unbroken by gullies, notwithstanding the great quantity of water 
which falls into it during the wet season. The productiveness of 
*¢ California,” says Frémont in his Memoir on that region, published 
in 1848, “is greatly modified by the structure of the country, and 
under this aspect may be considered in three divisions—the south- 
ern, below Point Concepcion and the Santa Barbara mountain, 
about latitude 35°; the northern, from Cape Mendocino, latitude 
41°, to the Oregon boundary; and the middle, including the bay 
and basin of San Francisco and the coast between Point Concep- 
cion and Cape Mendocino. Of these three divisions the rainy sea- 
son is longest and heaviest in the north, and lightest in the south. 
Vegetation is governed accordingly —coming with the rains —de- 
caying where they fail. Summer and winter, in our sense of the 
terms, are not applicable to this part of the country. It is not heat 
and cold, but wet and dry, which mark the seasons, and the winter 
months, instead of killing vegetation, revive it. The dry season 
makes a period of consecutive drought, the only winter in the veg- 
etation of this country, which can hardly be said at any time to 
cease. In forests, where the soil is sheltered, in low lands of 
streams and hilly country, where the ground remains moist, grass 
continues constantly green and flowers bloom in all months of the 
year. ; 

‘(In the southern half of the country the long summer drought 
has rendered irrigation necessary, and the experience of the mis- 
sions, in their prosperous day, has shown that, in California, as 
elsewhere, the dryest plains are made productive, and the heaviest 


SG 
Se 
xe 


CLIMATE —:- DRY AND WET SEASONS. 383 


crops yielded by that mode of cultivation. With eee sip a suc- 
cession of crops may be produced Eonenon 1 the eae 


The peculiarities of the climate of California are so well explained 
in a letter from the Honorable T. Butler King; that we extract 
his observations thereon as the most valuable portion of the teport 
made by him to the United States Government in March, 1850. ! 

‘The north-east winds, in their progress across the continent, 
towards the Pacific ocean, pass over the snow-capped ridges of the 
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, and are of course depriv- 
ed of all the moisture which can be extracted from them by the | 
low temperature of that region of eternal snow; consequently no 
moisture can be precipitated from them, in the form of dew or rain, 
ina higher temperature than that to which they have been subject- 
ed. ‘They pass therefore over the hills and plains of California, 
where the temperature is very high in summer, in a very dry state ; 
and so far from being charged with moisture, they absorb, like a 
sponge, all that the atmosphere and surface of the earth can yield, 
until both become, apparently, perfectly dry. 

‘“This process commences when the line of the sun’s greatest 
attraction comes north in summer, bringing with it vast atmospheric 
movements. Their approach produces the dry season in California, 
which, governed by these laws, continues until some time after the 
sun repasses the equator in September, when, about the middle of 
November, the climate being relieved from these north-east currents 
of air, the south-west winds set in from the ocean, charged with 
moisture— the rains commence, and continue to fall, not constantly, 
as some persons have represented, but with sufficient frequency to 
designate the period of their continuance, as the weé season, from 
about the middle of November until the middle of May, in the lati- 
tude of San Francisco. 


‘Tt follows, as a matter of course, that the dry season commences 
first, and continues longest in the southern portions of the Territory, 
and that the climate of the northern part is influenced in a much less 
degree by the causes which I have mentioned than any other section 
of the country. Consequently, we find that as low down as latitude 
39° rains are sufficiently frequent in summer to render irrigation 
quite unnecessary to the perfect maturity of any crop which is suited 
to the soil and climate. 


1 See T. B. King’s Report on California, Ex. Doc. No. 59, 31 Cong. Ist sess. 


384 CAUSES OF CHANGE — CLIMATE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 


‘¢There is an extensive ocean current of cold water, which com- 
ing from the northern regions of the Pacific, or, perhaps, from the 
Arctic, flows along the coast of California. It arrives charged with, 
and in its progress, emits air, which appears in the form of fog when 
it comes in contact with a higher temperature of the American coast, 
as the Gulf-stream of the Atlantic exhales vapor when it meets, in 
any part of its progress, a lower temperature. This current has 
not been surveyed, and, therefore, its source, temperature, velocity, 
width, and course, have not been accurately ascertained. 

“Tt is believed by Lieut. Maury, on what he considers sufficient 
evidence—and no higher authority can be cited—that this current 
comes from the coasts of China and Japan, flows northwardly to the 
peninsula of Kamptschatka, and, making a circuit to the eastward, 
strikes the American coast in about latitude 41° or 42°. It passes 
thence, southwardly, and finally loses itself in the tropics. * * 

‘CAs the summer advances in California, the moisture in the ate 
mosphere and the earth, to a nonsidenatle depth, soon becomes 
exhausted; and the.radiation of heat, from the extensive naked 
plains and hill-sides, is very great. 

‘*The cold, dry currents of air from the north-east, after passing 
the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, descend to the Pacific 
and absorb the moisture of the atmosphere to a great distance from 
the land. The cold air from the mountains, and that which accom- 
panies the great ocean current from the north-west, thus become 
united, and vast banks of fog are generated, which, when driven 
by the wind, has a penetrating or cutting effect on the human skin, 
much more uncomfortable than would be felt in the humid atmosphere 
of the Atlantic at a much lower temperature. 

‘¢ As the sun rises from day to day, week after week, and month 
after month, in unclouded brightness during the dry season, and 
pours down his unbroken rays on the dry, unprotected surface of the 
country, the heat becomes so much greater inland than it is on the 
ocean, that an under-current of cold air, bringing the fog with it, 
rushes over the coast-range of hills, and through their numerous 
passes, towards the interior. 

‘‘ very day as the heat, inland, attains a sufhcient temperature, the 
cold, dry wind from the ocean commences to blow. This is usually 
from eleven to one o’clock; and as the day advances the wind in- 
creases and continues to blow till late at night. When the vacuum 
is filled, or the equilibrium of the atmosphere restored, the wind 
ceases: a perfect calm prevails until about the same hour the follow- 
ing day, when the process re-commences and progresses as before, 


COAST RANGE VALLEYS AND INTERIOR VALLEY. 385 


and these phenomena are of daily occurrence, with few exceptions, 
throughout the dry season. 

‘<The cold winds and fogs render the climate at San Francisco, 
and all along the coast of California, except the extreme southern 
portion of it, probably more uncomfortable, to those not accustomed 
to it, in summer than in winter. 

‘¢ A few miles inland, where the heat of the sun modifies and soft- 
ens the wind from the ocean, the climate is moderate and delightful. 
The heat in the middle of the day is not so great as to retard labor, 
or to render exercise in the open air uncomfortable. The nights are 
cool and pleasant. This description of climate prevails in all the | 
valleys along the coast-range, and extends throughout the country, 
north and south, as far eastward as the valley of the Sacramento 
and’San Joaquin. In this vast plain the sea breeze loses its in- 
fluence, and the degree of heat in the middle of the day, during the 
summer months, is much greater than is known on the Atlantic coast 
in the same latitudes. It is dry, however, and probably not more 
oppressive. On the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, and especially 
in the deep ravines of the streams, the thermometer frequently ranges 
from 110° to 115° in the shade, during three or four hours of the 
day, from eleven until three o’clock. In the evening, as the sun 
declines, the radiation of heat ceases. The cool, dry atmosphere 
from the mountains spreads over the whole country, and renders the 
Maree tana Invigorating, 8 Pee) Re ee Ea 

‘¢ These variations in the climate of California account for the dif- 
ferent conflicting opinions and statements respecting it. A stran- 
ger arriving at San Francisco in summer, is annoyed by the cold 
winds and fogs, and pronounces the climate intolerable. <A few 
months will modify if not banish his dislike, and he will not fail to 
appreciate the beneficial effects of a cool, bracing atmosphere. 
Those who approach California overland, through the passes of the 
mountains, find the heat of summer, in the middle of the day, greater 
than they have been accustomed to, and therefore many complain of it. 

“< Those who take up their residence in the valleys which are situa- 
ted between the great plain of the Sacramento and San Joaquin and 
the coast range of hills, find the climate, especially in the dry sea- 
son, as healthful and pleasant as it is possible for any climate to be 
which possesses sufficient heat to mature the cereal grains and edi- 
ble raots of the temperate zone.” ! 


1 See appendix at end of vol. for Meteorological Observations in California. 


386 AREA OF ARABLE AND GRAZING LAND— PRODUCTIONS. 


We have thus obtained from reliable sources, a fair account of 
the soil, situation and climate of California, with the exception of 
that portion of the new State lying to the southward and eastward 
of the Sierra Nevada and the Soast Range, and between those 
mountains and the Colorado. This district is believed by experi- 
enced Californians to be mostly desert; at least, so much of it as 
lies upon the usual emigrant trail from the Colorado to San Diego, 
and that which is further north, in the neighborhood of Frémont’s 
explorations, is known to be of sucha character. Elsewhere, 
however, in the large valley between the two great ranges of the 
coast and the Sierra Nevada, and in the small lateral valleys that 
pierce their rugged sides in every direction, are the arable lands of 
California. In a previous part of this notice we have shown that 
the present boundaries of the State give to her 155,550 square miles 
of superficial area, or 99,552,000 square acres, exclusive of islands 
adjacent to the coast. If it be granted that one half of California 
is covered with mountains and that one fourth is a desert waste, we_ 
have still one fourth, or 24,888,000 square acres of arable land left 
for productive purposes. Messieurs Gwin, Frémont, Wright and 
Gilbert, in their Memorial already cited, do not hesitate to assert, 
that, after all due allowances, three-fifths of the whole territory, em- 
braced in the State of California, will never be susceptible of culti- 
vation or useful to man. This would leave, as the remaining two- 
fifths, 62,220 square miles, or 39,820,000 square acres, constituting 
the total valuable agricultural and grazing district, and distributed 
at intervals over the whole surface within the actual boundaries. ! 


Such are some of the substantial elements of self-reliance and 
independence possessed by the new State, exclusive of her precious 
metallic deposits. The genial soil is well adapted for the growth 
of those grains which are suitable for European or North American 
emigrants. Wheat, barley, rye and oats grow abundantly, as well 
as potatoes, turnips, onions, and all the roots known to our gardeners 
and farmers. Oats, of the species cultivated in the Atlantic States, 
are annually self-sown on all the plains and hills along the coast, and 
as far inland as the sea-breeze has a marked influence on the cli- 
mate. This fact indicates that similar grains may be raised in the 
same region without resorting to irrigation. Apples, pears and 
peaches may be brought to great perfection under skilful culture. 
The grape, too, received much attention in former days at the mis- 
sions and among the villagers, who produced an excellent fruit, the 


1 See Debates on the California Convention : Appendix p. xx. 


DISCOVERY OF GOLD—ITS POSITION. 387 


wine of which was abundant and delicious. The fine natural grasses 
and oats of California, aided greatly in satisfying and perpetuating 
the nomadic vaquero or herdsman, who was the type of the region 
before the cession to the United States; and it is calculated that 
the grazing grounds in the State are extensive enough to produce 
many thousand more cattle than will be required annually, for the 
vast increase of population. 


Notwithstanding the union of California with her sister States, 
and her favorable position for commercial purposes, it is scarcely 
probable that she would so soon have assumed almost a national 
rank, had not a mechanic, named James W. Marshall, who was 
employed during the iatker part of February, 1848, in piling a 
saw mill for Ganenn John A. Sutter on the south branch of the 
American Fork or Rio de los Americanos, discovered certain pieces 
of gold glistening at the bottom of the isieel In a few days frag- 
ments to the amount of one hundred and fifty dollars were removed 
from the water; and as the news spread among the settlers all over 
the region, farms, workshops, professions and homes were deserted 
to explore the promised Dorado. 

The results of this accidental discovery are already known all 
over the world. California has become a centre of attraction for 
population, wealth and trade. ‘The grand auriferous region which 
has thus far been examined and_ partially drained of its deposits, is 
between four and five hundred miles long, and from forty to fifty 
broad, following the windings of the Sierra Nevada. New disco- 
veries will doubtless enlarge this area, but the present recognized 
limits are the hills and lesser ranges rising from the eastern border 
of the Sacramento and San Joaquin plain, and extending. fifty 
or sixty miles eastward, until they reach an elevation of nearly 
four thousand feet, where they mingle with the main ridge of the 
Sierra Nevada. ‘The numerous springs, originating in the snows 
and rains of the mountain summits, pour down their rugged sides, 
cutting deep channels or barrancas through the lee ee: and 
even down to the quartz of which the foot hills are formed. ‘The 
streams, in creating these gorge-like channels, have come in con- 
tact with the quartz containing gold, and, by constant attrition, 
have cut or ground the metal into fine flakes, scales and dust. The 
precious deposit 1s, accordingly, found among the sand and gravel 
of the river beds at those places where the swiftness of the current 
reduces it in the dry season to narrow limits, or when the streams 
may be damed and turned. In other places auriferous quartz has 


388 THE PLACERES — WASHING — DIGGING — THE MINES. 


cropped out on the surface of the hills, mountains or gorges, and 
been worn and smoothed by the action of water. In these posi- 
tions the gold still remains entire in pieces of all shapes and sizes, 
from a single grain to lumps weighing several pounds. Placeres, or 
gold locations of this latter character, are styled “‘the dry dig- 
gings,”’ in contradistinction to the ‘washings ”’ of the streams, and 
are spread over large valleys which appear to have been subjected 
to the violent action of water. In the dry diggings the operation 
of extracting metal is performed by the hand alone or with a pick- 
axe, hammer and knife ; but the fine dust or scale-gold of the river 
bottoms is rescued from the earth by washing the whole mass in 
common tin pans, or vessels of every kind that can be substituted. 
The gyratory motion given to these primitive implements, removes 
the finest portions of soil; gravel is taken out by the hand, and the 
gold is left in the vessel united with a black ferruginous sand not un- 
like that used at the writing desk. This residuum is left on a board 
or cloth to dry, when the sand is blown off either by the mouth or 
a common bellows, leaving the gold whose gravity retains it on 
the board. Much of the very finest gold is, however, lost with the 
sand in this rude process. Vast numbers of rough machines re- 
sembling cradles, are also used in the business. ‘The rocking of 
the cradle answers to the gyration of the pan, and as the mud, wa- 
ter and sand escape from one end of the machine through a series 
of small cross-bars, the coarser particles of gold are retained in the 
instrument. On the head of the cradle is a common sieve, upon 
which the auriferous earth is placed; water is then poured on it, 
and as soon as the machine is set in motion, the gold, sand and dust 
are carried into the body of the cradle, while the gravel is rejected. 

But many experienced Californians do not look to the placeres or 
common gold diggings and washings for the continuation of that 
prosperity to which they gave birth. For its permanence they rely 
on the mines, whose development has but just commenced. This 
species of mineral riches les in that region where the auriferous 
quartz has been discovered of nearly uniform richness, from the 
A0th to the 35th degree of latitude, upon the waters of the Feather 
river, and on the American, the Mokelumne, the Mariposa, and 
the desert upon the south-eastern borders of California, east of the 
Sierra Nevada. In all these localities, within a range of three hun- 
dred and fifty miles, it is already known to exist, and the strongest 
analogy would carry it through the remaining distance. An assay 
of the ore of the Mariposa mines, now worked with a Chilian mill, 
afforded an average yield from washing, of forty cents per pound 


CALCULATIONS AS TO THE YIELD OF THE MINES. 389 


avoirdupois ; and afterwards, by the fine process, produced eighty 
cents to the pound additional; making one dollar and twenty cents 
per pound as the average. Other assays exhibit results from ores 
in various sections of California, ranging from twenty-five cents to 
five dollars per pound, and that, too, in specimens where no gold 
is visible to the naked eye. Rocks examined even within two 
miles of San Francisco, have yielded gold to the amount of ten 
cents per pound. ‘The result at the Mariposa mine has been at the 
rate of two thousand five hundred dollars for every ton! 

These facts, stated upon grave authority, may be regarded as 
positive information applicable to the whole extent of the gold pro-. 
ducing quartz. If we apply the results of the working of a British 
mining company,— The San Juan del Rey,—1in Brazil, to these 
assays and conclusions, we may estimate the consequences upon 
the destiny of California and of the world. The work of this Brit- 
ish company has increased annually for twenty years, and its last 
report dates on the Ist of March, 1850. In this it is stated that 
69,000 tons of ore were crushed and the gold extracted therefrom ;— 
applying this to the average yield of the mines in California, the 
result would be over one hundred and seventy millions of dollars! } 


Various speculations have been made as to the gross numerical 
summary of all these discoveries and labors in a broiling sun, in 
icy streams and under all kinds of privations; yet no definite accu- 
racy can be attained. During the earlier enterprises, California was 
a country without law or restraint, for, all men, bent upon the sin- 
gle selfish task of greedily gathering gold, resolved society com- 
pletely into its original elements. Out of the municipalities and 
villages there were no associations except in small bodies for mu- 
tual labor and protection. Severe and certain punishment secured 
the latter; but it may be reasonably supposed that the collection of 
statistics was not a duty willingly undertaken by such absorbed in- 
dividuals. Accordingly, we are not enabled to present more than 
proximate calculations of the wealth given and promised by Cali- 
fornia to the human race. 

Mr. King supposes, in his report, that during the first season 
there were not more than 5,000 employed in collecting gold, and 
that their average gain was one thousand dollars each, or an aggre- 
gate of five millions. But, in the season of 1849, the number of 
explorers increased by the vast influx from every quarter of the 


'See Senator Frémont’s speech. Debates in Senate of U. States on Friday, 20th 


September, 1850. 
2x 


390 GOLD YIELDED BY CALIFORNIA. 


world. in July, it was judged that 15,000 foreigners were in the 
placeres; and, by the labors of all classes united, the report calcu- 
lates that the round sum of forty millions was realized during 
1848 and 1849, of which one-half was probably taken from the 
country by foreign adventurers. Of the forty millions, twenty are 
estimated to have been gathered from the northern rivers princi- 
pally, or from those emptying into the Sacramento. The southern 
rivers, or those voided into the San Joaquin, were, up to that pe- 
riod, comparatively unvisited, and continued so until towards the 
season’s close. ‘There is one river which, from reported disco- 
veries, though not flowing into the great valley west of the Sierra 
Nevada, is as rich in gold as any other. This is the Trinity, which 
rises west of the Sacramento’s sources, and discharges into the 
Pacific not far from the fortieth degree of latitude. 

As commerce began to reassert her orderly sway in the ports 
of California, and as gold became again subservient to the true 
wants of man, more attention was paid to the collection of statis- 
tics relative to production and export. The mint of the United 
States has also enabled us to reach accurate partial results within a 
more recent period. By a table furnished to Mr. Hunt for publica- 
tion in his Merchants’ Magazine, of November, 1850, it appears 
that the gold dust shipped on the Pacific Mail Steamers, from 11th 
April, 1849, to June Ist, 1850, was $13,329,388; while the fol- 
lowing were the receipts at our mints: 


RECEIPTS OF CALIFORNIA GOLD AT THE N. ORLEANS AND PHILADELPHIA MINTS. 


Year, &c. At N. Orleans. At Philadelphia. Total. 
ime 1 SAS aint. Ss ea REAM AS het $44,177 $44,177 
Jan. Ist to Aug. 31st 1849 . 175,918 1,740,620 1,916,538 
Aug. 31st to Jan. Ist 1850 . 489,162 3,740,810 4,229 972 
Jan. lst to Feb. 28th... 5... 938,050° ,.2,974:393 aso aa 
To March 31st “ :°065,869 1,296,321 ~ 1,662,190 
March 3Ist:to May Ist ‘‘. ..° 298,180 1,813,002 2)1a tea 
May Ist to July 31st “* . 617,181 6,740,677. ~ TAoTeas 


Total, $2,584,310 $18,350,000 $20,934,310 

Of this vast total receipt at the two great mints of the country 
$17,000,000 were delivered in ten months, being at the rate of more 
than $20,000,000 yearly. Since January last, the receipts have been 
at the rate of $26,000,000, per annum, and for the last quarter, at 
the rate of $32,000,000 per annum, showing a constantly aug- 
menting ratio. Mr. Edelman, accountant of the Philadelphia mint, 
has prepared an essay to answer the repeated enquiries respecting 
the general character of Califormia gold and its value by the ounce 


ITS QUALITY — QUICKSILVER MINES. . 391 


troy. It appears from his calculations that seven-eighths of all the 
deposits made at his mint from the commencen ent of the business 
until April 1850, exhibit a variation in quality-of only fifty-cents 
per ounce troy, the fineness averaging between 873} thousandths 
and 898} thousandths. The general fineness of nearly all the gold 
brought to the mint is 886 thousandths; the flat spangles of the 
rivers, which bear a small proportion to the mass, averaging 895 
thousandths. The alloy detected in this gold is wholly silver tinged 
with a small quantity of iron, and the removal of the iron, dirt or 
sand in melting occasions usually a loss in weight of about 31 per 
cent. Ifthe grains have been cleansed by the magnet the loss is 
reduced to about 24 per cent., but if they are wet or dampened the 
loss may raise to even higher than 4 percent. California gold is 
regarded as consisting of 995 parts gold and silver in every 1000 
parts by weight, which renders it necessary to separate these metals 
before converting them into coin, for, according to law, the stand- 
ard national gold is so constituted, that, in 1000 parts by weight, 
- 900 shall be pure gold, and 100 an alloy, compounded of copper 
and silver. 


If the confident representations of travellers, miners, laborers and 
scientific men are to be heeded, the California placeres and mines 
will continue to yield an increasing ratio of precious metal; but 
time alone can disclose the degree in which their products will be 
multiplied. Should they reach $100,000,000 annually—and they 
may surpass that amount—the yearly addition to the gold of Europe 
and America, will be 62 per cent. on $1,800,000,000, which is the 
estimated amount of that metal in those two quarters of the globe. 
This vast sum more than doubles the past contributions of Ameri- 
can mines during the period of their greatest productiveness. } 

Gold, however, 1s not the only important mineral element of Cali- 
fornia’s wealth. Her quicksilver mines are believed to be numer- 
ous, extensive and valuable. The cinnabar ore which produces the 
quicksilver, lies near the surface, is easily procured and is represent- 
ed to be remarkably productive. The mine of New Almaden is a 
few miles from the coast, midway between San Francisco and Mon- 
terey, and in one of the ridges of the Sierra Azul. The mouth of 
this mine is a few yards from the summit of the highest hill that has 
been found to contain quicksilver, and is about 1,200 feet above the 
neighboring plain and not much more above the ocean. Its ore-bed 
seems to be embraced in a greenish talcose rock. By a very rude 


Article by the Hon. Professor Tucker, Hunt’s Magazine, July 1850, p. 25. 


392 * _ COMMERCE— POPULATION. 


apparatus the yield on the spot was found to be over fifty per cent. 
Mr. Charles M. Wetherill of Philadelphia, an accomplished chemist, 
found the percentage of mercury to be 60, in 123 grains which were 
submitted to him; and 45 in another parcel containing 614 grains. 
Cinnabar ore has been found in about twenty other places within a 
few miles of this valuable location. 

It is asserted that there are extensive veins of silver, iron and 
copper in California; but there is no information sufficiently accurate 
to justify a statement of their existence or value. 


The commerce of California has of course flourished in proportion 
to her population and wealth. The aggregate of duties paid on 
foreign merchandize at San Francisco from the 12th of November 
1849 to the 31st of May 1850, was $755,974. At the date of the 
information there were in the harbor 623 sailing vessels, 12 steam- 
ers; and 140 sail vessels and 8 steamers at Sacramento City, Stock- 
ton and other places up the rivers. Of this total of 783 vessels, 
120 were foreign and 663 American. The amount of tonnage at 
San Francisco, was 1,020,476, and 100,000 in towns and cities on 
the Sacramento and San Joaquin; but of this large sum 800,000 
tons at least were unemployed. 

The singular history of the unprecedented rise in the value of 
merchandize or the necessaries of life in California after the dis- 
covery of gold, is a chapter full of surprising and fantastical inci- 
dents, but our narrowing space denies us the tempting privilege of 
recounting it in this volume. 

In all these calculations and estimates we must occasionally 
approach the dangerous domain of speculation, and in this category 
must we also place most of our information respecting the population 
and towns of California. Population is of course constantly aug- 
menting under these great temptations for the rapid accumulation of 
fortune ; yet with society in such a transition state, the true ratios 
or numbers of actual increase cannot be accurately obtained. 

According to Baron Humboldt the population of Upper Cali- 
fornia consisted in 1802, of 7,945 males and 7,617 females, or, 
15,562 individuals attached to the eighteen missions. All other 
classes whether whites, mestizos, or mixed castes, either in the 
Presidios or in the service of the Monks, were estimated at 1,300. 
This calculation would make the whole population, at that time, 
exclusive of wild Indians, 16,862. In 1831, the number of missions 
had increased to twenty-one, and their Indian neophytes were 18,- 
683; all other classes in the garrisons and among the free settlers 


a= 


7 


GROWTH OF CITIES — OLD PRESIDIOS — TOWNS. 393 


amounted to 4,342, making a total of 23,045; nor is it probable that 
this number was much augmented until after the cession and sub- 
sequent discoveries. At present it is quite impossible to calculate 
closely the wild Indians of miserable, debased tribes found in the 
mountains, whose numbers are variously stated by travellers and 
writers at 100,000, and 300,000. In the memorial of the California 
Representatives, already cited, the population on the 1st of January, 
1849 is stated at 13,000 Californians, (which is probably too low a 
number,) 8,000 Americans, and 5,000 foreigners, or 26,000, in all 
From that date to the 11th April, the arrivals from sea and by land 
were judged to be 8,000, while, according to the Harbor Masters’ 
Record at San Francisco, 22,069 Americans and 7,000 foreigners : 
arrived there from sea, between the 12th of April and the 31st of 
December 1849. Of these 28,269 were males, and only 800 women! 
In addition to the immigration by sea at this single port, it may be 
presumed that not less than 1,000 individuals landed elsewhere in 
California during the same period. By Santa Fé and the Gila nearly 
8,000 entered the country. From Mexico 6,000 or 8,000 were sup- 
posed to have come, though only about 2,000 remained in the ter- 
ritory. Adding to these amounts 3,000 deserting sailors, and com- 
puting the overland immigration at 25,000, we have 107,000 inhab- 
itants in California on the Ist of January 1850. It would probably 
not be unsafe to add fifty thousand for the immigration of the current 
year, so as to give the new State at least 150,000 citizens in Jan; 
uary 1851. 


As gold and people increased so miraculously, the tents and en- 
campments of the adventurers gave place to houses and towns whose 
materials and construction were almost as frail. When the precious 
metal became abundant, land of course quickly grew into speculative 
importance and value. Men who disliked the toil of draining gold 
from the rivers or digging it among rocks, resorted to the easier 
mines of their own ingenuity, and, obtaining titles to advantageous 
locations near the great rivers, or, on important bays and straits, laid 
out magnificent plans for the gorgeous cities of the Pacific Empire. 
The list of some of these ‘‘Cities,”’ given in a note at the bottom of 
the page, comprises the leading locations north of San Francisco 
and on the routes to the principal placeres.1 Some of these towns, 


1 Frémont, a town laid out by Jonas Spect, on the west bank of the Sacramento 
river, opposite the mouth of Feather river ; Vernon, east bank of the Feather river, 
at its confluence with the Sacramento ; Boston, on the north bank of the Rio Ameri- 
cano, a few miles above its confluence with the Sacramento ; Sacramento City, on 
the site of the celebrated Sutter’s Fort: Sutter City, on the east bank of the Sacra- 


394 LAND TITLES—MISSION LANDS. 


and probably many more, will prosper permanently because they 
are admirably situated to aid in the development of the interior of 
the great valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. If this valley 
is to be annually deluged and converted into a lake, as it was Jast 
year during the rainy season, the agricultural prosperity of Cali- 
fornia must be seriously affected, and the rising cities will probably 
suffer with it, unless the placeres and the mines shall continue to 
pour their bountiful supplies into the hands of all who seek them. 

The old Spanish and Mexican towns and villages, will in all 
likelihood continue to assert their importance. The chief of these 
are the ancient Presidences or Presidios of San Francisco, Monterey, 
Santa Barbara and San Diego. In all of these, Europeans and 
Americans are already establishing themselves as residents who de- 
sire to make California their permanent home. The old pueblos of 
Los Angeles, situated about eight miles from the mission site of San 
Gabriel; — of San José about fifteen or twenty leagues from the bay 
of San Francisco, near Santa Clara ;— and of Branciforte about a 
mile from the mission of Santa Cruz, and a mile and a half from 
the bay of Monterey, —are still in existence, and having been 
built on well selected sites, may flourish long after the fragile cas- 
tles erected in the golden region have passed away like the scenery 
of adrama. ‘The Monks, every where, possessed an instinctive sa- 
gacity for nestling in the best locations, and time will doubtless do 
justice to their discretion in California. 


The increased value of land of course indicated to our govern- 
ment the necessity of promptly examining the titles of property in 
California; and accordingly, Mr. W. Carey Jones, a lawyer ac- 
complished in the Civil and Spanish laws, was despatched thither 
by the authorities in Washington, to examine the grants from the 
Spanish and Mexican governments. His full, learned, and satis- 
factory report has been published by congress, and declares that 


mento, a few miles below Sacramento City ; Webster, on the east bank of Sacra- 
mento river, nine miles below Sacramento City ; Suisun, on the west bank of the 
Rio Sacramento, 80 miles from San Francisco ; Tuolumne City, at the head of navi- 
gation of the Tuolumne river; Stanislaus, on the north bank of the Stanislaus river ; 
Stockton, situated on a slough, or sloughs, which contain the back waters formed by 
the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin; New York upon the Pacific, loca- 
ted at the mouth of the San Joaquin ; Benecia, on the Straits of Carquinez, 35 miles 
from the ocean; Martinez, opposite Benecia ; Napa, on the banks of the Napa creek, 
40 miles north of San Francisco ; Sonoma, in the valley of the same name, three 
miles from the Sonoma creek ; St. Louis, on the Sonoma creek; San Rafael, on the 
north side of the Bay of San Francisco ; Saucelito, on the Bay of San Francisco, at 
the entrance of the harbor. 


CONCLUSION. 395 


these grants are mostly perfect titles, or have unquestionably the 
same equity as those that are perfect. ! 

All the grants of land in California, except pueblo or village lots 
and some grants north of the bay of San Francisco, subsequent to 
the independence of Mexico, and after the establishment of that 
government in California, were made by the different political goy- 
ernors. These personages possessed the exclusive faculty of mak- 
ing grants of eleven leagues or sitios to individuals, which were 
valid when sanctioned by the Territorial Deputation ; but coloniza- 
tion grants to Empresarios or contractors, required the sanction of 
the Supreme National Authorities. 

The supposition, usually entertained, that the mission lands were 
grants held as the actual fee-simple property of the church, or of 
the mission establishments as corporations, is entirely erroneous. 
All the missions in Upper California, established under the direc- 
tion of the Spanish Viceroyal Government and partly at its ex- 
pense, never had any other right than that of occupation and use, 
the whole property being either resumable or otherwise disposable, 
at the will of the crown or its representatives. The right of the 
Supreme Powers to remodel these establishments at pleasure, and 
convert them into towns and villages, subject to the known policy 
and law which governed settlements of that kind, was a funda- 
mental principle controling them from the beginning. 

After the secularization of the missions the principal part of the 
church lands were cut off by private grants. Some of them still 
retain a portion of their original territory, but others have been con- 
verted either into villages and subsequently granted in the usual 
form in lots to individuals and heads of families, or have become 
private property. A few are either absolutely at our government’s 
disposal now, or, being rented at present for a term of years, will 
become so when the tenant’s contracts expire. 


The gold of California is a modern disclosure, though, probably, 
it is not altogether a modern discovery. There are documents in 
existence which show that it was known to the Mexican govern- 
ment; and, as far back as 1790, a certain Captain Shelvocke 
obtained in one of the ports, a black mould which appeared to be 
mingled with golden dust. Specimens of California gold were 
exhibited privately by the authorities in the city of Mexico not long 
before the late war; and a memoir prepared by the congressional 
representative, imparts the fact that it had been taken in consider- 


1 Report upon the land titles of California by W. Carey Jones—Washington 1850. 


396 CONCLUSION. 


able quantities from placeres in the neighborhood of Los Angeles. 
It is very likely that the rulers of the Mexican Republic were not 
anxious to add to the allurements which were already enticing our 
people to her distant province, and silence was therefore preserved 
in relation to its mineral wealth. 

California has, at least, illustrated one great moral truth which 
the avaricious world required to be taught. When men were stary- 
ing though weighed down with gold, — when all the necessaries 
of life rose to twice, thrice, tenfold, and even fifty or a hundred 
times their value in the Atlantic States,—that distant province 
demonstrated the intrinsic worthlessness of the coveted ore, and 
the permanent value of every thing produced by genuine industry 
and labor. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the new State will not 
degenerate into a mere mining country, or be forever a prey to that 
feverish excitement in the pursuit of sudden wealth which is fed or 
frustrated by the contemptible accidents of luck. 

The rapid development of the country is almost unparalleled in 
national history; and now that a substantial government and union 
with our confederacy are secured, it remains to be seen how the 
social problem of California will be solved, and whether it possesses 
any other elements than those of gold and men for the creation of 
a great maritime State on the shores of the Pacific. Wonderful 
order has been preserved in spite of the anomalous condition of 
the immigrants; yet refined woman must be content to cast her lot 
in that remote but romantic region, and, by her benign influence, 
soften, enlighten, and regulate a society which is formed almost ex- 
clusively of men. In the course of time steam will open rapid 
communications with the east, and travellers will not be compelled to 
pass either the desert or those more southern regions where the moul- 
dering ruins of Casas Grandes denote the ancient seat of Indian 
civilization. The iron bands of railways, the metallic wires of the 
telegraph, and the gold of California will then bind the whole grand 
empire of the west in a union, which social sympathies, commercial 
interests, national policy, and a glorious history will make ever- 
lasting. 


THE END. 


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398 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 


APPENDIX. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 


Mr. T. Butler King was furnished by Surgeon General Lawson, United States 
Army, with the following thermometrical observations : 

At San Francisco, by Assistant Surgeon W. C. Parker, for six months, embracing 
the last quarter of 1847, and ‘he first quarter of 1848. The monthly mean tempera- 
ture was as follows : October, 579; November, 49° ; December, 50°; January, 49° ; 
February, 50° ; March, 519°. 

At Monterey, in latitude 36° 38’ north, and longitude 121° west, on the coast, 
about one degree and a half south of San Francisco, by Assistant Surgeon W. 8. 
King, for seven months, from May to November inclusive. The monthly mean 
temperatnre was: May, 56°; June, 59° ; July, 629 ; August, 59° ; September, 58°; 
October, 60°; November, 56°. 

At Los Angeles, latitude 34° 7’, longitude west 118° 7’, by Assistant Surgeon John 
S. Griffin, for ten months, from June, 1847, to March, 1848, inclusive. The monthly 
mean temperature was: June, 73°; July, 749; August, 75° ; September, 75° ; Oc- 
tober, 69° ; November, 59° ; December 60° ; January, 58° ; February, 55°; March, 
58°. This place is about forty miles from the coast. 

At San Diego, latitude 32° 45’, longitude west 117° 11', by Assistant Surgeon J. 
D. Summers, for the following three months of 1849, viz: July, monthly mean tem- 
perature, 71° ; August, 75° ; September, 70°. ; 

At Suttersville, on the Sacramento river, latitude 38° 32! north, longitude west 
121° 34’, by Assistant Surgeon R. Murray, for the following months of 1849. July, 
monthly mean temperature 73° ; August, 70° ; September, 65° ; October, 65°. 

These observations show a remarkably high temperature at San Francisco during 
the six months from October to March, inclusive ; a variation of only eight degrees 
in the monthly mean, and a mean temperature for the six months of fifty-one degrees. 

At Monterey we find the mean monthly temperature from May to November, in- 
clusive, varying only six degrees, and the mean temperature of the seven months to 
have been 58°. If we take the three summer months the mean heat was 60°. The 
mean of the three winter months was a little over 499; showing a mean difference, 
on that part of the coast, of only 11° between summer and winter. 

The mean temperature of San Francisco, for the three winter months, was pre- 
cisely the same as at Monterey—a little over 499. 

As these cities are only about one degree and a half distant from each other, and 
both situated near the ocean, the temperature at both, in summer, may very reason- 
ably be supposed to be as nearly similar as the thermometer shows it to be in winter. 

~The mean temperature of July, August, and September, at San Diego, only 3° 53! 
south of Monterey, was 72°. The mean temperature of the same months at Mon- 
terey was a little over 59°; showing a mean difference of 13°. 

At Los Angeles, 40 miles distant from the coast, mean temperature for the three 
summer months was 74°; of the three autumn months, 67°; and three winter 
months, 57°. At Suttersville, 130 miles from the sea, and 4° north of Los Angeles, 
mean temperature of August, September and October, was 67°. Mean tempera- 
ture of same months at Monterey, 59°; making a difference of 8° between the 
coast and the interior,-on nearly the same parallel of latitude. 


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